Recycling pet, the plastic used to manufacture beverage bottles as well as many food containers, has helped generate almost 26 000 indirect jobs, and the plastics recycling industry can help reduce poverty across south africa and contribute to gdp growth. This was the upbeat message from the ceo of petco, cheri scholtz, on the second day of the south african national bottled water association&rsquos conference in midrand, gauteng, this week. Petco is the industry organisation responsible for pet recycling in south africa. In a presentation entitled &ldquopet recycling in south africa &ndash plastic bottles are not trash&rdquo, scholtz informed delegates that petco and its recycling initiatives have become a global benchmark for extended producer responsibility because of its success to balebybale, yearbyyear, reduce the volume of postconsumer pet plastic in the waste stream. Working with collectors, recyclers, converters and packaging designers to ensure the successful growth of the pet recycling industry, petco is well on the way to achieving its challenging target of recycling 50 of all beverage pet by 2015. This would not be possible without the voluntary financial support from petco&rsquos members who have all helped launch a consumer engagement campaign using the compelling slogan &ldquopet bottles are not trash&rdquo &ndash a simple slogan to start motivating consumers. When coupled with thoughtprovoking headlines, compelling facts and figures, and superb photographs of pet bottles that showcase them as objects of value, petco is hoping that consumers will begin to reconsider their attitudes to pet and take a bold, successful step towards an inclusive and environmentally sustainable future. Extrupet&rsquos coo, chandru wadhwani, carried on the theme set by scholtz when he addressed designing for recycling. &ldquothe dilemma for bottle converters to meet challenging customer demands for &lsquomarketing friendly&rsquo packaging while at the same time meeting the demands of the waste act to be responsible producers&rsquo is an ever growing one,&rdquo he said. &ldquono longer is it sufficient for packaging to just be &lsquorecyclable&rsquo, it must be able to demonstrate that it is in fact being recycled.
Designing packaging with recycling in mind from the offset is critical in determining its final recyclability as recyclers are ever cautious about which &lsquopacks&rsquo they will accept, and which they will not. &ldquoultimately, there is a &lsquowinwin&rsquo approach that can be achieved from proactive engagement between the designers of packaging and recyclers so we can all ultimately achieve a &lsquocradle to cradle&rsquo solution for packaging,&rdquo wadhwani said. Parsons and associates specialist groundwater consultants&rsquo roger parsons iterated that water is the key component of any bottled water operation, and without it there simply will be no business. It thus requires a high degree of protection.
He suggested that the protection of source water entails four main components, namely understanding the water resource, identifying vulnerabilities and opportunities of the source, undertaking measurements and monitoring and reviewing and revising the management of the water source. Using a series of case studies, his presentation demonstrated the components of source protection and assessed the approach adopted by sanbwa. Putting theory into practice, general manager the cocacola company&rsquos plantbottle packaging platform, scott vitters, took delegates through the launch of its plantbottle package.
Moving beyond aspirational statements, this eliminates the dependence of pet plastic packaging on fossilbased materials. Today the company has already introduced 10billion bottles with its first generation plantbottle packaging technology in 20 countries and recently announced partnerships for commercializing the first 100 renewable pet plastic bottle that is fully recyclable. Sanbwa&rsquos conference is running in parallel to drinktech, the exhibition for the bottled water industry that takes place every second year, africa&rsquos big seven ab7 exhibition, a &lsquoseveninone&rsquo exhibition covering the entire food and beverage industry from &lsquocrop to shop&rsquo. Httpfoodstuffsa.co.zapackagingstuffmainmenu79packagingnews20112230saplasticbottletrashgenerates26000jobs
