Jeevaraj Pillai has spent over thirty years inside the packaging industry. He has seen materials come and go, watched recycling technologies evolve, and worked through the slow, often frustrating shift toward circular economy thinking. Now he has put all of it into a book.

'Plastics Recycling', published by the Packaging and Printing Research and Development Centre, launched this Wednesday in Delhi-NCR. It is a guide to polymer-based packaging recycling and where it fits into the larger circular economy picture, written by someone who has lived the subject rather than studied it from the outside.

The book covers a lot of ground. Polymer degradation, collection and sorting systems, mechanical and advanced recycling technologies, contamination management, material-specific recycling pathways, and regulatory compliance. It also gets into design for recyclability, digital product passports, traceability systems and recycling approaches for both mono-material and multi-material packaging formats. One feature that stands out is the inclusion of QR codes that take readers through visual demonstrations of key recycling processes, which makes the more technical sections considerably easier to follow.

Pillai, who serves as President of Flexible Packaging and New Product Development and Chief Sustainability Officer at UFlex, said he wrote the book to close a gap he had noticed for years. "I have attempted to bridge the gap between theory and industrial practice by providing a structured and practical perspective on plastics recycling," he said. "I hope it serves as a useful knowledge resource for industry professionals, researchers, students, and all stakeholders committed to creating a more sustainable future."

PPRDC said the book is intended for a wide audience, including professionals, researchers, students and policymakers working in the sustainability and packaging space.

It is available now on Amazon, NIPA Books and Meripustak, and through academic distribution channels.