The South African Plastics Recycling Organisation (Sapro) is welcoming all entries for this year’s Recycled Plastic Product of the Year Awards.

This year will be the organisation’s sixth competition, and aim to acknowledge the wide variety of products that are locally manufactured using recycled materials.

Competition history

The awards were first held in 2010 and have been dubbed “The Oscars” of the plastics recycling industry. Each year, the number of entrants grow as well as the in the variety of different products submitted.

This biennial competition showcases the tremendous amount of ingenuity and creativity local product designers have, and aims to encourage brand owners to seriously consider recycled plastics as a material of choice.

“Whether they are designing packaging or pallets, shoes or shopping bags, this competition has demonstrated that there is no limitation to where and how recycled plastics can be used,” Sapro said.

Previous winner include the City of Cape Town and MPACT Plastic Containers with their Fifty/50 Wheelie Bin (2015), Unilever with their Sunlight Dishwashing bottle (2013), Lasher Tools with their Eco-Wheelbarrow (2012), Woolworths and Polypet with their 1.5 litre juice bottle (2011), and Tufflex Materials with their innovative railway sleeper made from mixed materials (2010).

Winners of this year’s competition will be announced at a gala dinner in Gauteng during Clean-Up and Recycle SA Week (11-17 September 2017).

Product categories and judging criteria

In order to encourage even greater participation and entries by local converters and innovators, this year’s competition will have five distinct product categories. They are:

• Products made from 100% post-consumer recyclate
• Products containing a percentage post-consumer recyclate
• Products made from recycled mixed materials
• Novel and artistic products such as articles made from discarded plastics products
• The ‘New Ideas’ category, which is a new award, includes anything that can be made from recycled materials. It does not have to be a product as yet, just the idea clearly explained and can be illustrated on a poster or mock-ups.

Awards

A gold, silver and bronze winner will be announced in each of these product categories. The recycler of the material, the manufacturer of the product and the brand owner will be acknowledged at the awards ceremony.

The overall winning entry will walk away with the Sapro trophy for The Best Recycled Product for 2017.

“Entries will be judged on a number of criteria by a panel of judges who are experts in plastics, packaging, recycling, product design and marketing,” Sapro said.

The criteria that will be used when adjudicating each entry includes:

• The life expectancy of the product
• Sustainability
• Measures taken to ensure product consistency and if there is customer satisfaction despite recycled material content
• Tonnage (or potential tonnages) of plastics that were converted and therefore diverted from landfill
• Technical achievements in manufacturing to overcome recycled material challenges
• Replacement of alternative materials
• The “Wow-factor” of the product

“Although various weighting could be used to judge products objectively, we are looking for products that will grow the demand for recyclate, help to focus on the quality of products and to stimulate innovation – all aspects needed for a vibrant plastics recycling industry,” Sapro said.

Rules, regulations and entry forms

Any company in the SADC region may enter the competition, provided that the recycled material originated in South Africa. Products that were entered in previous years’ competitions, but failed to win, are also eligible to enter again.

The closing date for entries is Thursday, 10 August 2017.