Lay’s is India’s largest potato chip manufacturer. We process about 507 Million kilograms of potatoes to keep up with the demand of 5 Billion packs every year. Steady manufacturing is critical to meet the business demand. But potato chip manufacturing requires high water usage- 1 kilogram of Lay’s needs 3 litres of water.

Water is finite. There is the same amount of water today as there was during the caveman age. With over 17000Bn litres water getting withdrawn in India for industrial use every year;

pressure on water sources is mounting. Growing Lay’s demand amidst limited water supply, threatens our processing capacity and business.

To protect our business from water crisis and reduce the pressure on water bodies; we needed to fundamentally reinvent our manufacturing operations to reduce our water footprint.

To reduce pressure on natural water sources for our manufacturing processes, we developed ‘Project Drops of Joy’- a system which rethinks potato as alternate water-supply source to create a self-sustainable water recovery operation.

Using the singular ingredient of Lay’s- the potato- we reclaim its water content and

reinvented our manufacturing operations to self-sustain the water consumption during the processing of potato into potato chips.

Thus, turning an unsustainable system of “Taking, Making and Wasting” potato water to a sustainable water supply which “Reclaims, Reprocesses and Reuses” potato water within its processing.

To reduce pressure on finite water resources while keeping up with growing Lay’s demand; we went back to basics.

Our breakthrough moment was as simple as it was shocking.

Middle school science teaches that the humble potato goes beyond from just being a potato- it is 20% starch and 80% water. This potato water is unaccounted for when considering water sources- we think of lakes, reservoirs, rivers, seas- but what about water in potato?

This sparked the ingenuous idea of transforming our chip manufacturing water supply by

rethinking potato as an alternate water supply source.

To initiate this ambitious system, we targeted our biggest processing plants in India- in Kolkata and Kosi. Partnering with hydrologists and chemical engineers, we developed the ingenious water recovery system and began full scale operations in 2023.

Flipping the conventional notion of water supply; we developed Project Drops of Joy- a self-sustainable water recovery system to turn every potato into a water source.

At our plant, we slice and cook the potatoes to make chips. The 80% water in potato turns into vapor while cooking. Under this project, we have engineered a way that

-> Vapors from potatoes are collected and sent to a condenser unit

-> The condenser converts vapors to liquid water at exactly 6 Degrees Celsius.

-> To clean this potato water effectively, we then purify it in three steps:

1. Particles are made to settle with alum treatment

2. Filtration eliminates all impurities

3. UV light removes the harmful pathogens to clean it completely

After purifications, life is added to water in the form of dissolved oxygen, making it exactly like natural water.

Project 'Drops of Joy' reimagines operational water-supply; going beyond ‘saving’ to ‘creating’ water from unconventional sources. By transforming how we look at manufacturing inputs; we are reducing reduce water-stress on both planet and operations- driving sustainability with profitability.

A. Reducing pressure on planet

-> 120Mn litres of pure water is currently being created every year in just 2 plants

-> By using clean energy run to our plants and reducing dependence on sourcing water from main body, Project 'Drops of Joy' is reducing 41.2 Mn Kg carbon emissions every year.

B. Exceeding quality of local water-supply; ensuring quality chips

-> Just 0.017 PPM levels and neutrality with 7.17pH

C. High returns through water recovery

-> 50% of manufacturing water-supply is self-sustained

-> $1.7Mn saved in water cost

Not just this, after its successful implementation, project 'Drops of Joy' is now being scaled globally to 30 Lay’s plants in high-water-risk countries.