At Stark Ridge Paper, sustainability isn’t a department, a vague target or a report we file once a year. It’s the architecture of how we operate. Every decision we made when designing our plant - raw material, water treatment, energy efficiency, green zone, waste reduction - was shaped by one question: How can we do this without costing the planet?”
Our manufacturing process begins with Old Corrugated Cartons; material that already exists and would otherwise go to landfill. We take a waste stream and turn it into a high-quality product. The process results in less landfill, no deforestation & no habitat loss.
Our Forest Stewardship Council certification confirms that our paper is 100% recycled, and meets the global standard for responsible fibre sourcing.
Our effluent treatment system runs on bacterial action, and recycles water in a closed loop. It requires almost no additional fresh water, leaving the local ground water table unaffected. It also produces Zero Liquid Discharge, so we don’t release any industrial waste water into the local soil. Water that is released from the system during routine cleaning is rich in organic matter, making it great for watering the plants & trees within our own green zone.
The bacterial action of our effluent treatment generates biogas as a natural byproduct. We capture it and feed it directly into our boilers as fuel, replacing 5 to 7 tonnes of coal every single day. Waste eliminated, coal consumption reduced; this is what circular manufacturing actually looks like when it’s running.
Our solid process waste is rich in organic matter, which makes it a great fertilizer. We conducted an experiment in collaboration with Mr. Badal Singh, a local farmer. Using our solid waste as a fertilizer, and his own hard work, he was able to successfully grow & harvest a crop of mustard on a 5-acre field that had been lying barren for the past 5 years.
Following the success of the experiment, we now distribute our solid waste to local farmers to use as fertilizer, increasing their crop yields & income.
We turn our kraft paper into core pipes that we use for finished paper rewinding. This reduces wastage, procurement costs, and dependence on external vendors, while increasing skill training & job opportunities for local youth.
The green zone surrounding our plant in Jharkhand has been designed to resemble the natural forest habitat of the Malabar Giant Squirrel (the animal on our logo). This was done with the hope of giving wild Malabar Giant Squirrels from the area a safe place to nest and raise their young, to help their numbers recover. Employees at our facility now report more frequent sightings of Malabar Giant Squirrels within the zone.
When Stark Ridge Paper was first being built, it was so remote that mobile network coverage was sketchy at best, ecommerce deliveries were unheard of, and our team at the site had to travel all the way to the nearest town for a cup of tea.
In the past few years, the presence of a large plant with hundreds of employees has prompted a massive transformation of the surrounding area. A thriving community of all ages, a community health center and a maternity hospital, a bustling market, better telecom infrastructure, ecommerce deliveries, vehicle repairs & servicing, solar-powered street lamps all along the village roads - all the amenities one needs for daily life are now right outside our plant gates.
Every morning, when our employee shuttle bus would leave the plant to head into town and pick up employees, local children would wait for it at the edge of the road, and ask for a ride into town for school. Soon, we realised our bus had become the unofficial “school bus”. So we quietly redesigned the bus schedule around picking the students up and dropping them off at school before picking our employees up for their shifts.
Over time, and with small positive actions like these, we’ve integrated ourselves into the community. And helping to build our local community up, has been both our responsibility and our greatest privilege.
Our formal Community Outreach is spearheaded by Mr. Binay Ranjan Satpathy, and focuses on two main areas - Healthcare & Economic Empowerment
Since our inception, we have actively prioritised the wellbeing of the local community.
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Following the Government of Jharkhand’s ban on single-use plastic, the HRD Ministry of Jharkhand, in collaboration with Stark Ridge Paper, has set up training facilities to train rural women in making paper bags which are being used as substitutes to plastic bags. As the largest paper plant in Jharkhand, Stark Ridge Paper proudly supports these Self-Help Groups by supplying kraft paper at subsidized rates.
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Our order booking, raw material management, production, finished goods inventory, dispatch and accounting all run on a Microsoft-based ERP system. This ensures transparency & accountability at all levels of the organisation, and allows quick access to realtime data for faster, more accurate decision-making. Our ERP system is also linked to our customer portal, allowing customers to download previous records & check order statuses in realtime. We are the first (and so far the only) paper manufacturer in India to offer this level of transparency to our customers.
To comply with international safety standards, we organize safety training programs bi-yearly wherein we educate our employees on the safety protocols of our plant. Every new Stark Ridge Paper employee receives personal safety equipment & training as part of their induction, and strict protocols are maintained to ensure employees & visitors wear their safety equipment at all times while in the factory area.
All work & no play makes Starky a dull squirrel!
That’s why we host in-house events to make life at Stark Ridge Paper more fun, and build a sense of community within our team.
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How does a child make new friends? They go to a playground and say “Hi!”
As young new members of India’s paper & packaging fraternity, we do the same thing - we participate in industry events, to help us build relationships with suppliers & customers, and establish our brand.
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Our approach to technology, products, resource management & community outreach have led to us being recognised by various publications & media houses.
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