Passionate about innovations on creating circular economy for plastics: Marico’s Harsh Mariwala

In 2012, Mariwala also set up ASCENT Foundation, a unique peer learning platform for entrepreneurs to exchange insights, experiences and ideas in a confidential environment. As of 2024, ASCENT has over 1,000 member entrepreneurs. In 2014, Mariwala founded the Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI) focused on supporting mental health issues.

Mariwala spoke to indianexpress.com about his interventions in the Indian innovation ecosystem, his thoughts on the need for mentorship as a game changer for entrepreneurs, on how he spends his time with the foundation, and on the startups and innovative companies in the circular economy for plastics. Edited excerpts:

Venkatesh Kannaiah: What is the starting point for your Marico Innovation Foundation journey? What is it modeled on?

Harsh Mariwala: I am completely against giving money as donations to educational institutions or hospitals, and then not bothering about it at all. My idea is that I should be participating and giving my personal time for the projects that I am involved in and also that I should be good at that subject and have something to contribute to. With the Marico Innovation Foundation, it is more of my personal time, energy and conviction that I bring in. Our focus was on innovation much before it became a fashionable word, and much before such activities became a part of CSR mandates. Our sectoral focus has been on agriculture, healthcare, mental health and now plastics.

Apart from the Marico Innovation Foundation, I am also personally involved with ASCENT, a peer learning platform with more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, who work in groups, meet in person regularly and help each other overcome their blind spots. There is a formal interview and selection process and they are placed in groups with a certain level of trust factor and then they communicate and learn from each other.

Our innovation journey began with our study on innovative organisations and this led to our innovation awards, which are held once every two years. We get about 700-odd applications and awards are given to 6-8 people. We do rigorous background checks, a verification process and even for the award ceremony, we have a TED talk trainer so that the limited time they have is put to good use to communicate their innovation, rather than on personal issues. Many of the innovations showcased by us went on to win other awards and further funding.

As for the acceleration programme, we work with small and medium size companies to scale up, identify the issues with regard to talent, tech or culture. I also spend time to see whether whoever we take in will create an impact. We bring in a lot of talent into the initiative with retired CEOs working as mentors. We also take these issues and pose them as challenges for management school students to solve. For example, Atomberg, an industrial fan maker, wanted to create its own distribution and go B2C. We worked on it and created a B2B model, and now they are very successful.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: In the Marico Innovation Foundation, there is a new focus on plastics. What is that you want to achieve and what is the strategy?

Harsh Mariwala: You must understand that plastics are cheap, attractive for packaging and convenient to use. We get asked as to why we are using so much plastic, as we were the pioneers in moving from tin to plastic for packaging purposes. Around 94 per cent of our plastics used in our packaging are recyclable, but that does not mean it is recycled. We felt that we can intervene and identify innovators in the plastic recycling sector and it would be a way of creating an impact. We have identified 14 innovators and are working with them. In 2022, MIF ventured into the plastic waste management space by generating a holistic report with municipality level case studies of waste management practices, international benchmarks, gaps in funding, and the disruptive innovations in the plastic value chain, ranging from collection and sorting to recycling and upcycling.

We find that recycling is still at a cottage industry stage and requires a quantum jump for scale and for the circular economy to build up. Waste collection and segregation is still a challenge in urban areas, and we are looking to encourage companies building facilities for recycling and then sell the same to the corporate sector. We want these prototypes to work and generate results.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you tell us about some of the startups and innovators you are working with in the circular economy space?

Harsh Mariwala: We are working with a lot of interesting innovators and startups in the circular economy space. Some like Ricron Panels use cutting edge tech to create construction material from low-value Multi Layered Packaging (MLP) waste. These sustainable green building products are a cost-effective substitute to plywood, MDF, cement boards, and metal sheets. There is Padcare which uses a mixture of cloud technology and chemo-mechanical methods to collect and recycle sanitary napkin waste.

When it comes to waste management, we have Angirus, which uses their patented tech to convert non-recyclable plastic and other waste into damp proof bricks for sustainable construction and development. There is Bintix which collects and sorts door-to-door waste from individual households. Using machine learning algorithms, they generate data on consumer behaviour in cities based on the type of waste generated. This data could even be used by corporations to design sales and marketing strategies.

And when we come to sustainable packaging, we have Zerocircle that makes bio-alternatives for plastic by using natural seaweed through a low energy, green processing technology. These alternatives are biodegradable, cost effective and durable. There is Dharaksha, which uses mycelium (fungi) as a medium to transform stubble waste into effective breakage-free packaging. It aims to curb stubble burning and replace thermocol packaging with customised, biodegradable and sustainable alternatives. Kagzi is an eco-friendly alternative to single use plastics. The bottles are made from bamboo mixed with biodegradable starch and additives. They are durable for up to two years and biodegrade in landfill and natural soil conditions.

When we come to building unique platforms to tackle waste, we work with Paperman which has a mobile application that connects scrap dealers to households, empowering them to work together to manage waste. Refillable is India’s first zero-waste refill service provider for non-edible liquids like detergents, floor cleaners and personal care products. The reusable glass bottles can be purchased at a refundable deposit. Their portable dispensing machines can be installed in societies and retail stores.

It is quite a cohort and we hope that our work and interventions with them will help them to scale up and create substantial impact.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you tell us about your Scale Up programme, its reach, and a few impact generating interventions of yours.

Harsh Mariwala: As for the interesting startups mentored by us in the scale up programme, Atomberg Technologies is a prominent one. It has built an efficient brushless DC contact motor that makes energy appliances efficient by consuming 70 per cent less electricity than appliances with traditional motors. When we started off our engagement with them, in 2016 they were at a turnover of Rs 4 crore, now it is more than Rs 100 crore. Our intervention was not perhaps in technology but perhaps in rethinking the business model. Innovation at times means wearing a different cap and nothing more.

Ishitva Robotics, another of our scale up cohort, creates automatic sorting machines and can sort waste into various categories and plastic waste by polymer, brand and colour at a speed of 6 tons/hour. Their machines are now deployed at some of the top recyclers in India. S4S Technologies manufactures solar-powered dehydrating units that retain food nutrition. These units are operated by women micro-entrepreneurs, with products being supplied to the food and beverage industry.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: How does your ASCENT Foundation programme work? What is the impact?

Ascent Foundation is a peer-to-peer learning network and there are already 1,000 entrepreneurs in the network. They meet once a month in person for 2-3 hours and discuss the issues plaguing them. We want the entrepreneurs to speak their mind and their fears, and hence we put them in groups in which there is no conflict of interest. Trust is of much value in this grouping. It is a personal initiative of mine, fully funded by me and is not part of the MIF.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: How big is your Marico Innovation Foundation?

Harsh Mariwala: We are a very small organisation of around 8-10 people, and I am personally involved with the foundation to a large extent. However, I am not taking into account the volunteering done by a significant number of Marico senior management, and the large number of well-wishers who work pro bono to mentor startups and innovators.

Venkatesh Kannaiah: Can you tell us about one innovation or one intervention of Marico Innovation Foundation that you are really proud of?

Harsh Mariwala: We now see that the big challenge is with collection of household waste, segregating the same and recycling it, and selling it back to corporates and the larger market. We are working with one startup and we are looking to prototype the whole process in the cities of Hyderabad and Raipur,Based on the learnings from the same, I would be investing in a personal capacity.

If this works out, we would be taking it national and scale it faster, bringing in more investors and partners, and if it succeeds, it would be the most impactful initiative to come out of Marico Innovation Foundation.