In February, Petco was a proud sponsor of, and active participant in, Africa’s Green Economy Summit in Cape Town. The summit facilitated some important conversations around closer cooperation for a more circular future for the continent and taking action against climate change.

At the summit, Petco CEO Telly Chauke was among the panellists in a high-level discussion on ‘Financing Africa’s Circular Economy: A dialogue between city leaders, investors and innovators on how to move from fragmented pilots to bankable, continent-wide solutions.’

With global climate finance almost doubling in the last six years to US$2-trillion, it is becoming a real business opportunity for investors. But, according to speaker Aguil Deng of GFANZ Bloomberg, climate capital is entering a new phase, flowing beyond green narratives towards industrial competitiveness and bankable systems that generate credible revenue and mitigate risk.

For Petco, this platform also provided the ideal opportunity to showcase initiatives Petco has implemented in South Africa that can be replicated across the continent to deliver tangible impact at scale.

Petco’s key message rested on three key points:

1. Co-operation without borders is essential to driving a circular economy.
2. Small-scale actions matter. At Petco, our community-level work – raising awareness about recycling and reusing plastic packaging – creates a groundswell of action.
3. Industry cannot do it alone. We need enabling regulatory frameworks, supportive fiscal instruments, cohesive policies and scalable investments in green infrastructure implemented through partnerships.

While South Africa’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation has shown itself to be a necessary lever for action, it is not sufficient as the only instrument for sustainable change. Petco believes that collaboration holds the key to lasting impact at scale – within South Africa’s borders and beyond.

These are some of the high-level ways to unlock potential:

• Aggregate small-scale solutions to unlock scale: Local and small-scale interventions are essential, but real impact comes from aggregating them into coordinated systems that reduce costs, close local market price gaps, and address logistical inefficiencies.
• Make meaningful investments: Substantial, well-structured investment is required to move beyond pilots, uncover true opportunities for scale, and build solutions that are commercially viable and bankable, such as infrastructure support through the sponsorship of conveyors, trucks, forklifts and other equipment.
• Strengthen the entire value chain: Supporting actors at the top of the value chain enables stability that consistently trickles down, improving livelihoods and inclusion for waste pickers and smaller buy-back centres. This includes aspects like paying the purchase fee to recyclers to balance market volatility.
• Develop replicable models: Financing should prioritise proven, replicable models that can be adapted across regions, rather than continuously reinventing new pilots. This includes replicating separation-at-source programmes that work and drawing lessons from it.
• Align funders: Create strategic partnerships.
• Encourage collaboration between support organisations: Working together, especially among producer responsibility organisations with similar mandates, reduces fragmentation and unlocks larger, more coordinated investments for systemic circular economy impact.

While recent macroeconomic and policy shocks, and the rise of global protectionism threaten Africa’s fragile recycling systems, the green economy also presents many opportunities for entrepreneurship. Read more in this exclusive Q&A with Telly by summit organisers: ‘Green entrepreneurship is the fulcrum on which the circular economy rests’.

READ THE Q&A

WATCH VIDEO INTERVIEW