Bisleri International Pvt Ltd signed a Letter of Association (LoA) with the State Bank of India (SBI) on 5 September 2026 to take its Bottles for Change programme into SBI branches and offices across India. Under the tie-up, Bisleri will train SBI staff, collect used plastic from bank premises and send it for recycling. The partnership connects everyday plastic waste management with the larger goals of a circular economy, SBI Net Zero by 2055 and India Net Zero by 2070.
What Does the Bisleri SBI Partnership Involve?
A Letter of Association is a formal written understanding between two organisations to work together on a shared goal. In this case, it is not a supply contract for water bottles. It is a cooperation agreement under which Bisleri will bring its recycling system into the offices of SBI, which is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers and employees.
The work will happen in three linked steps. First, Bisleri will conduct training and awareness sessions for SBI employees and housekeeping staff on responsible segregation, cleaning and storage of used plastic. Second, Bisleri will arrange collection of the segregated used plastic from SBI offices. Third, the collected plastic will be sent to authorised recyclers for recycling into new products.
The scale of SBI gives the tie-up its importance. As of 30 June 2026, SBI operated more than 23,000 branches, over 65,200 ATMs, and around 79,600 business correspondent outlets. It served more than 52 crore customers, with a deposit base of over ₹60 lakh crore and advances of more than ₹50 lakh crore. Its headquarters is in Mumbai, where the agreement was signed. SBI officials present included Ravi Ranjan, Managing Director for Risk, Compliance and SARG, while Bisleri was represented by its Chief Executive Officer, Angelo George.
Both sides have described the partnership as a workplace culture effort with a wider effect. SBI has linked it to Viksit Bharat 2047, the national vision of a developed India by 2047, arguing that employee level action on waste can spread to homes and communities. Bisleri has called it a scalable model for corporate participation in plastic circularity, where the methods tested inside one large institution can be repeated by other companies.
What is Bottles for Change?
Bottles for Change is a plastic recycling and awareness programme run by Bisleri International Pvt Ltd. Bisleri is an Indian packaged water and beverage company headquartered in Mumbai. The brand name originated in Italy in the 19th century with chemist Felice Bisleri, entered India in 1965 through a plant at Thane, and was acquired by the Parle Group family under Ramesh Chauhan in 1969. It was later consolidated as Bisleri International Pvt Ltd in 2001. Today the company is known for Bisleri packaged water, Vedica Himalayan spring water, Soda and other drinks.
Bisleri launched Bottles for Change on 5 June 2018, which is observed as World Environment Day. The core idea is simple. Plastic itself is not waste. It becomes pollution only when it is thrown mixed with food and other garbage, dumped on land, or flushed into drains, rivers and oceans. If used plastic is cleaned, segregated by type and sent directly for recycling, it remains a valuable material.
The programme works with housing societies, schools, colleges, corporates, hotels, restaurants and municipal bodies. Bisleri teams place awareness material on premises and train staff and residents on source segregation, which means separating plastic at the place where it is thrown. A mobile app and field network help link users to the nearest registered plastic agent, commonly called kabadiwala. The agent buys the clean plastic at market rates, sells it to an aggregator, and the aggregator sends it to recyclers. At recycling units, the plastic is sorted again, washed, shredded into flakes, and then melted to make new non-food products such as fabric, T-shirts, bags, shoes, handbags, window blinds and chairs. Plastic of the type Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), which is used for water bottles, can also be converted into recycled polyester or food grade recycled plastic, which reduces pressure on fresh oil based raw material.
Over the years the initiative has grown into one of the largest private plastic collection efforts in the country. Bisleri reports activity in 44 cities with 45 municipal corporations, covering more than 1,818 corporates, 2,451 educational institutes, 1,657 hotels and restaurants and 7,008 resident welfare associations. It reports outreach to over 10 million citizens and collection and recycling of more than 28,645 metric tonnes of used plastic. Partners have included social enterprises and recyclers such as Parisar Bhagni Vikas Sangh, Sampurna Earth and Dalmia Polypro Industries.
Are Bisleri Bottles Recyclable?
Yes. PET water bottles, including Bisleri bottles, are fully recyclable if they are empty, clean and dry. Recycling becomes difficult when bottles contain leftover water, food stains or are mixed with wet waste, because dirty plastic is often rejected by collectors and ends up in landfills. That is why Bottles for Change stresses three habits of rinsing the bottle, crushing it to save space, and storing it separately before handing it to the collector.
What is Circular Economy and Why Does It Matter for India?
A circular economy is an economic system in which materials are used, recovered and used again, instead of being used once and thrown away. In a linear system, the flow is take, make, use and dispose. In a circular system, the flow is make, use, collect, recycle and remake. For plastic, this means bottles and packaging return to factories as raw material rather than ending in dumps, rivers and oceans.
India has made circularity a central part of its resource and climate policy. The Circular Economy Cell was set up in NITI Aayog in September 2022 to coordinate action across ministries. NITI Aayog, which is the central policy think tank of the government headquartered in New Delhi, has finalised 10 sectoral action plans for circular economy. NITI Aayog estimates that a circular economy could be worth $2 trillion and create 10 million jobs by 2050, while reducing import dependence for raw materials and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Plastic illustrates both the opportunity and the gap. India consumes about 13 million tonnes of plastic per year. A large informal network of about 4.5 million ragpickers, 1.2 million kabadiwalas and 7,500 recycling units helps India recycle a high share of clean plastic, with industry and government estimates ranging from 60 percent to 78 percent. The remaining share, largely light and dirty items such as wrappers, carry bags, milk pouches and multilayer packets, lies in dump yards or as roadside litter because it is not collected clean. Programmes that improve segregation at source, like Bottles for Change, directly address this gap by increasing the quantity of clean plastic available for recycling.
How Do Plastic Waste Management Rules Govern Recycling in India?
The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 form the main legal framework for plastic waste in India. They were notified on 18 March 2016 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. They apply to waste generators, local bodies, gram panchayats, manufacturers, producers, importers and brand owners. They were supported by the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, notified on 8 April 2016.
The rules place clear duties on different actors. Citizens must minimise plastic waste, segregate it at source and hand over separated waste as directed. Local bodies must build systems for segregation, collection, storage, transport, processing and disposal, and must channel recyclable plastic to registered recyclers as per Indian Standard IS 14534. They are also encouraged to use non-recyclable plastic for road construction as per Indian Roads Congress guidelines, energy recovery or conversion to oil.
Two later changes are important for this story. First, the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 prohibited identified single use plastic items from 1 July 2022, including plastic sticks for ear buds and balloons, plastic flags, candy and ice cream sticks, thermocol for decoration, and cutlery such as plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons and straws. The same set of amendments raised the minimum thickness of plastic carry bags to 75 microns from 30 September 2021 and to 120 microns from 31 December 2022, to improve collection and reuse.
Second, the amendments of 16 February 2022 introduced detailed guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR means that a producer remains responsible for the sound management of its product until the end of its life. Under EPR, producers, importers and brand owners that place plastic packaging in the market must collect back an equivalent quantity, ensure minimum levels of recycling, increase reuse, use a prescribed share of recycled plastic content, and ensure scientific end of life disposal of what cannot be recycled. They must register on a centralised portal run by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which was established in 1974 and is headquartered in New Delhi, file annual returns, and buy EPR certificates from registered recyclers where needed. The SBI Bisleri collaboration fits directly into this framework, because it creates a clean collection channel that helps move more packaging waste toward registered recycling.
What is the SBI Net Zero 2055 Target in the Context of India Net Zero 2070 Goal?
Net Zero means that the total greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere are balanced by an equal amount removed from it, so the net addition is zero. For organisations, emissions are counted in three groups. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned sources such as diesel generators and company vehicles. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity. Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions in the value chain, including financed emissions from loans and investments, paper use, travel, waste and suppliers. Scope 3 is usually the largest share for a bank.
SBI has set two linked climate milestones. Its mission is to achieve carbon neutrality in Scope 1 and 2 by 2030 by using more renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and retiring carbon offsets for residual emissions. Its vision is to achieve Net Zero across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2055. The year 2055 is the centenary year of SBI, which was formed on 1 July 1955 under the State Bank of India Act, 1955, after the conversion of the Imperial Bank of India. SBI is headquartered in Mumbai and its present Chairman is C S Setty.
To move toward these goals, SBI has created a dedicated ESG and Climate Finance Unit, adopted a Sustainability and Business Responsibility Policy, and set a target of at least 7.5 percent of domestic gross advances as green advances by 2030. It has raised $250 million through green bonds, introduced the SBI Green Rupee Term Deposit in line with Reserve Bank of India guidelines, installed more than 31 MW of solar capacity, and certified 61 buildings under green building ratings. Its sustainability reporting shows progress in digital processes, renewable energy procurement and financing of renewable projects worth thousands of crores of rupees.
These bank level goals sit within the national commitment. India announced at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021 that it will achieve Net Zero by 2070. This pledge is part of five commitments known as Panchamrit, which also include 500 GW of non fossil capacity by 2030 and meeting 50 percent of energy needs from renewables by 2030. NITI Aayog studies estimate that the Net Zero transition will need cumulative investment of about $22.7 trillion by 2070, with power, industry, transport, buildings and waste all shifting to low carbon paths. Waste actions such as universal collection, segregation, recycling, biomethanation and methane recovery are shown to cut waste sector emissions by more than 95 percent compared to current trends. In this larger picture, recycling plastic through office level action reduces demand for virgin plastic, saves energy and avoids landfill methane, which supports both the 2055 and 2070 timelines.
Why This Collaboration Matters
The importance of the agreement lies in its method rather than its size. Many institutions issue green statements, but few change daily routines for waste. By training housekeeping teams who handle waste first, the programme fixes the weakest point in the chain. Clean and sorted plastic fetches value, so kabadiwalas collect it willingly. Dirty and mixed plastic has no value, so it stays in bins and reaches dump sites. A bank with thousands of premises can therefore supply a steady stream of high quality recyclable material if segregation is done correctly at desks, canteens and meeting rooms.
The partnership also shows how a financial institution can act on Scope 3 emissions without waiting for new technology. A bank cannot cut its financed emissions quickly, because that depends on the long term shift of borrowers. It can, however, cut waste, improve recycling and build awareness among lakhs of employees and crores of customers in the short term. For Bisleri, the gain is credibility and reach for its EPR effort, because collection from a single large partner is easier to track and verify than collection from scattered sources.
There are limits to keep in view. Office recycling alone cannot solve plastic pollution, which also needs product redesign, higher recycled content, stronger enforcement against banned single use items, and support for informal workers. The success of this tie-up will therefore depend on regular collection, transparent reporting of how much plastic is actually recycled, and extension from pilot offices to the full branch network.
Key Takeaways
- Bisleri International signed a Letter of Association with SBI on 5 September 2026 to implement Bottles for Change across SBI branches and offices.
- Bottles for Change was launched by Bisleri on World Environment Day, 5 June 2018, and has reportedly recycled over 28,645 metric tonnes of plastic across 44 cities.
- PET bottles are fully recyclable only when they are clean, dry and segregated at source before collection.
- The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and EPR Guidelines of 2022 make producers, importers and brand owners responsible for collection, recycling and use of recycled content through the CPCB portal.
- SBI aims for carbon neutrality in Scope 1 and 2 by 2030 and Net Zero across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2055, its centenary year, while India targets Net Zero by 2070.
