Aug 2024 | Exploring Opportunities and Innovations in Recycling
Petco Producer Responsibility Organisation NPC
Petco is a trusted, member-focused Producer Responsibility Org. that drives change across the packaging value chain.
There is so much happening in the collection and recycling industry right now – and so many more opportunities to be explored!
In this newsletter, we share the variety of work that Petco has been doing on the ground – from partnering in clean-ups to educational initiatives and separation-at-source projects.
We look at the opportunities in waste for young entrepreneurs, and explore how our waste picker incentives campaign is helping to grow the collection of liquid board packaging (LBP).
We also celebrate member Polyoak Packaging ’s newly released tethered closure, which offers major design for recycling benefits, and ALPLA Group and Re-Purpose ’s partnership that will help to secure the feedstock for its new recycling plant, which is expected to make an additional 35,000 tonnes of recycled PET available annually.
And in case you missed it, we share handy links to our annual review and the inspirational winners of this year’s Petco Awards.
All of our efforts are made possible by our members and working with various stakeholders. Together, we can lead the way to a circular economy in South Africa.
Yours in circularity,
The Petco Team
Young entrepreneurs share opportunities in waste
Young entrepreneurs have opened up about the highs and lows of making a living in the waste management sector during an event marking Youth Skills Day.
In mid-July, Petco hosted the event in Killarney, Johannesburg, under the themes of climate action and the opportunities for youth working in the collection and recycling industry.
Keynotes from the Woodbridge Island Beach Cleanup
Braving the cold weather on a Saturday in April, Petco's stakeholder engagement officer, Junaid Francis, and communications officer, Naledi Yona, joined non-profit organisations Clean C, Save a Fishie NPC and Petco member Pepsico, to clean up Cape Town’s Woodbridge Island beach.
The clean-up, which saw 50 百事 employees participating, also presented an opportunity for team members to share some valuable insights on the litter items collected – especially how to address the prevalence of plastic bottle caps and closures in the environment.
Considering the huge amount of bottle caps collected on the day, 百事 ’s Nicolette Beffels emphasised that plastic caps should be reattached to bottles before being discarded, thereby reducing their potential for being littered separately.
Polyoak Packaging introduces tethered closure
Bottle closures and their tamper-evident rings are some of the most highly leaked plastic items globally. Due to their small size it’s simply uneconomical to pick them up individually for recycling, and they tend to fly off collection trucks, so they end up littering the environment.
Following the global drive to address the issue, Petco member Polyoak Packaging , which is also a founding member of the South African Plastics Pact , recently introduced a 28mm tethered closure. This tethered (tied to) cap never separates from the bottle, thereby preventing litter and ensuring that bottle and cap are recycled together.
Tethered closures are the future of packaging, and we encourage our members to review and adapt their cap designs accordingly.
Petco partners with Don Bosco
Over the last few years, Petco has helped launch numerous school recycling programmes and conducted workshops to educate about the importance of recycling, thereby encouraging learners to take an active role in preserving our planet for future generations.
More recently, we were approached by the Catholic organisation Don Bosco Educational Projects?(DBEP) to hold a recycling workshop for the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco and teachers and learners from four local schools in Ennerdale, Gauteng.
Our objective was to educate the teachers about the urgency of recycling so they in turn can effectively educate their learners and implement separation at source (S@S) initiatives at their respective schools.
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Success for Tshwane S@S project
A first-of-its-kind separation-at-source (S@S) project in Tshwane is already reaping rewards, with plans afoot to extend it to the city’s many public spaces.
A collaboration between the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and Petco, the S@S project which began as a trial earlier this year at the city's popular Fountains Valley Resort is the city's first in a public space.
It encourages the public to recycle, extracting quality recyclables right where they are disposed of and diverting them from landfill, and proving that public-private partnerships of this kind can create economic opportunities for service providers in the collection and recycling value chain.
Petco’s incentives campaign grows LBP collection volumes
Recently, Petco decided to pay another visit to Inhle Indaloyakhe Recycling in Daveyton, Gauteng. We were so impressed with the amount of LBP collected by the area’s waste pickers on our first visit that we had to visit again.
This time, 71 of the area’s waste pickers had collected and sold 679 kilograms of LBP to the buy-back centre, which is more than double when we first visited. To acknowledge this achievement and to inspire the waste pickers and first-time collectors to target even greater volumes, we rewarded them with cellphones, caps, reflector vests, and juice and custard.
(Also, congratulations to Inhle Indaloyakhe owner Suzan Banda, who is the deserving winner in the Entrepreneur category in this year’s Petco Awards! See the awards story for more details.)
South Africa supports global efforts to combat plastic pollution
Prior to her recent portfolio change, former Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) , Barbara Creecy, affirmed that South Africa is determined to support global efforts to end plastic pollution.
In 2022, South Africa agreed to the necessity for an international legally binding instrument to combat plastic pollution at the fifth session of the United Nations (UN) Environment Assembly. Government has also been in continued consultation with SA’s plastic industry to ensure that the growth of the industry is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.
Minister Creecy identified extended producer responsibility as one of the key ways to “collect, reuse and recycle plastic waste with the aim of promoting a circular economy in the plastic industry.”
She also reminded that South Africa’s negotiations are firmly backed by our Constitution, which secures the right to an environment that is not harmful to one’s health and that is protected from plastic pollution.
Revisiting the annual Petco Awards
The 2024 Petco Awards recognised businesses, organisations, community groups, and individuals within the collection and recycling value chain that have made an extraordinary contribution towards building a circular economy and a sustainable future for our country.
For Petco, it is indeed an honour to spotlight our sustainability heroes and initiatives, and this year we awarded 11 change-makers across nine categories (including a new “Innovation” category).
For those who missed all the excitement, click on the link below to meet the winners of these prestigious awards.
ALPLA joins forces with Re-Purpose
Petco’s 2023 joint PET-repreneur award recipient, Re-Purpose , and Petco member ALPLA Group , which is one of the largest converters of PET resin in Southern Africa, recently formed a strategic partnership to advance sustainable packaging solutions and strengthen the feedstock directed to ALPLA Group ’s new recycling facility.
ALPLA Group is investing €60 million to build the recycling plant in Ballito – which is expected to produce over 35,000 tonnes of recycled PET annually from early 2025. The collaboration between the two companies is also targeting the collection of 5,000 tonnes of PET scrap per month.
Combining the recycling expertise of ALPLA Group and the innovative reverse logistics of Re-Purpose , ultimately the partnership aims to drive innovative solutions that will add value to the circular economy, while also creating income-earning opportunities in KwaZulu-Natal, and potentially nationwide.
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7 个月Loved this
Pak Petrochemical Industry as a Production Field Supervisor rotation, ( at Petrochemical plant ).
7 个月Well said!
24 Years of Experience in Plastics Raw material /Masterbatches/Compounding /Additives and Recycling Material Modification
7 个月Very helpful!