India's largest flexible packaging firm Uflex Ltd. is launching two environmental initiatives, investing about 50 million Indian rupees ($700,000) in a pyrolysis plant at its Noida site to turn plastic film waste into oil and gearing up to open a plastic recycling facility.

Private equity fund Blackstone Group is paying between $310 million and $462 million for a majority stake in Indian packaging company Essel Propack Ltd., which says it's the world's largest maker of laminated tubes.

As India continues to see calls for restrictions on plastics -- from bans of scrap imports to Prime Minister Narendra Modi'a plans to phase-out single use plastics -- companies at the recent Indiaplast show were trying to demonstrate more potential in recycling.

India's urbanization, which is just beginning in the country, will substantially increase plastic consumption, the head of a key policy making body told a recent plastics trade show.

Milacron Holdings Corp. plans to invest at least $30 million in a second plastics machinery factory in India in the next two years to handle growth there, the company's top executive said at a recent trade show in the country.

Boston-based private equity fund Advent International announced Oct. 11 it's buying a stake in South Asia's largest PET bottle and preform maker, Manjushree Technopack Ltd., from an Indian investment firm. Terms were not disclosed.

PET preform and container manufacturer Chemco Group is investing in two new sites in India to meet demand from multinational customers like Coca Cola.

German caps and closure maker Bericap GmbH is doubling the size of its Pune, India plant.

India's growing plastic packaging industry continues to draw in foreign equipment makers, with single-speed PET machinery maker Cypet Technologies Ltd. from Cyprus investing in a plant.

Faced with large amounts of plastics litter and waste, India's governments are increasingly looking at single-use plastic bans, and companies are being asked to come up with extended producer responsibility systems.

Indian compounder Welset Plast Extrusions Ltd. is making major changes, divesting its PVC business to Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. but keeping and expanding its core masterbatch operations.

The global plastics recycling market could take another two years to normalize in the wake of China's ban on waste plastic imports, the head of the Bureau of International Recycling's plastics committee said at a recent industry event.

At a ceremony in Mumbai to honor Indian plastics exporters, government and industry officials outlined strategies to boost exports.

India's Varun Beverages Ltd. is investing in PET bottle making and preform manufacturing in Africa.

India's Creative Group of Industries, one of the country's largest blow molders, says it plans to spend $100 million on an overseas expansion, starting with factories in the United States, the United Kingdom and Dubai.