The latest statistics reveal that over 1.4 billion PET bottles are being recycled across South Africa, which equates close to 4 million bottles recycled every day. In addition, PETCO exceeded its PET plastic recycling rate for 2010 by 5 290 t.
Fiscal 2011 a momentous year for PETCO In 2011, PETCO celebrated its 6th anniversary and its efforts over the past year were evident in the outstanding recycling figures. While the world was still recovering from the economic recession, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling figures in South Africa continued to grow despite tough trading conditions, and the organisation is therefore proud to announce that in 2011 it achieved an annual PET recycling rate of 42% of post-consumer beverage PET and 29% of total PET. A total of 42 651 t of PET was collected and recycled out of a 145 000 t 2011 resin market. PETCO also tracked the recycling rate, including pre-consumer material, and the tonnage collected and recycled in 2011, including pre-consumer, equalled 46 276 t, representing 46% of beverage PET and 32% of total PET. Credit where it’s due These achievements would not have been possible without the voluntary financial support from PETCO’s members. By paying the recycling levy and other contributions through grants-in-aid, the PET converters, bottlers, raw material producers and Coca-Cola South Africa have all helped PETCO to be the benchmark for Extended Producer Responsibility and to, reduce the volume of post-consumer PET plastic in the waste stream bale-by-bale, year-by-year. The organisation achieved this recycling rate in partnership with contracted service providers, Extrupet, Kaymac and Sen Li Da, which combine collection, recycling and end-use in their PET value chain. Cheri Scholtz, CEO of PETCO, says: “Over the past six years we’ve gone from 9 840 to 42 651 t of post-consumer PET bottles recycled or from 324 million bottles collected in the first year to well over 1 billion bottles recycled in 2011. We’ve have assisted in the establishment of over 430 plastic recovery stations throughout South Africa and supported training of staff at these drop-off sites. We have also been involved in numerous separation at source and school education projects. The organisation has grown its targets from 16% to 46% of beverage PET recycled, from 87 000 to 145 000 t of PET resin produced, from small to large amounts of recycling levies collected and income opportunities created, from success to success.” In addition, the organisation has helped generate almost 26 000 indirect jobs across the country. As far as carbon is concerned, recycling 1 t of PET saves 1.5 t of CO₂, so the total carbon saved via PET recycling is in excess of 63 000 t of CO₂. A winning formula The organisation’s 28 shareholder and 42 associate members have contributed to job creation and skills development. PETCO has also provided millions of rand worth of financial support to PET recycling companies and in doing so has managed to expand both bottle-to-fibre and bottle-to-foodgrade recycling. “Built on the simple principle of establishing an industry-driven and -financed environmental solution for PET, the PETCO model is now proven to be expandable and sustainable,” says Casper Durandt, senior technical operations manager for Coca-Cola South Africa and PETCO chairman. According to Scholtz, 2012 will certainly prove to be a turning point in the organisation’s development as this will be the first year that PETCO will be facing a shortage of end-use market applications for recycled PET, with the local bottle-to-fibre market now reaching saturation and local recyclers have reached capacity. “This means that as more and more post-consumer PET bottles are collected, so end-use markets need to expand and develop,” she explains. South African PET recycling is unique in that almost all of the post-consumer PET bottles collected are recycled into a local end-use (mainly fibre and more recently bottle-to-bottle) and not exported to China, as is done by many other countries. The largest end-use market for post-consumer PET bottles in South Africa is currently the fibre market (bottle-to-fibre). More recently, there is installed capacity for post-consumer PET bottles to be recycled into new bottles (bottle-to-bottle). B2B resin take-up is, however, still relatively slow and PETCO is working with retailers and brand owners to increase the demand for PET recyclate. Industry and consumer initiatives During 2011, PETCO worked closely with the Recovery Action Group on drafting the Industry Waste Management Plan for the packaging and paper industries, the main co-regulatory instrument within the waste management system. At the same time, PETCO now chairs the newly formed Sustainability Council of Plastics SA, providing leadership to the plastics industry in order to reduce carbon emissions, be more energy efficient, cut transportation and ensure that post-consumer packaging plastics do not end up on landfill sites.
Last year also saw the organisation support projects with a strong focus on public and consumer-based education and awareness programmes, and these initiatives and activities contributed to the visible recycling of PET. Many of these programmes, such as beach clean-ups, trade shows and workshops for members on topics such as designing PET bottles and containers with recycling in mind, were convened in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. Together with major retailers Woolworths and Pick n Pay, PETCO has recently established the Retailers for Recycling Forum, which aims to minimise the environmental impact of post-consumer packaging on the South African landscape by creating awareness among consumers of recycling issues and supporting retailers as they work with their own suppliers to ensure that packaging is designed with reduction, reuse and recycling in mind.
Looking ahead In 2012, PETCO needs to meet the targeted tonnage of post-consumer beverage PET recycled of 48 356 t or 44% of all beverage PET resin converted, assist with the establishment of more collection and drop off centres, and progressively build recycling awareness through compelling and focused messaging. The organisation believes that high rates of recycling can only be achieved through the separation of waste at household level. There has to be a vigorous and cost-effective strategy from both the public and private sector to implement kerbside recycling more widely and to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover plastics much more efficiently than is currently being done. <<PROVINCIAL FACTS>> – Gauteng generates the most PET post-consumer product in South Africa at 55% of the national total, followed by the Western Cape with 13% and KwaZulu-Natal accounts for 10% – Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga account for 5% each, with the North West and Free State each generating 4% of SA’s post-consumer PET product – Limpopo and the Northern Cape create the smallest PET post-consumer product at 3% and 1% respectively <<GENERAL FACTS>> – Approximately 33 bottles = 1 kg PET – The fibre for a standard pillow can be made with nineteen 500 mℓ PET bottles – According to the UK-based recycling organisation Recoup, if plastics were no longer used in packaging, the weight of packaging materials would rise by 300%, the volume of rubbish would expand by 150% and the energy consumed by the packaging industry would increase by 100%. – Statistics say approximately 12% of household waste is packaging waste. Estimates are that some 3% of this, by weight, is plastic bottles (estimated to be 100 000 t for 2012 in South Africa). – Recycling 1 t of plastic bottles saves 1.5 t of CO₂, and decreases the need for raw materials, thus saving energy.
