In order to establish a plastic recycling facility in Namibia, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) and Namibia Polymer Recyclers (NPR) have signed an investment agreement. The recycling facility will turn used PET flakes, which are valuable on the global market, into plastic beverage bottles.
Post-consumer bottles must be sorted, cleaned, and crushed into PET flakes before being shipped back to South Africa for further processing into recycled PET goods or R-PET material.
In line with The Coca-Cola Company's World Without Waste initiative, this investment will broaden CCBA's partnerships in Namibia that are centered on the collection of plastic waste. The Coca-Cola Company and all of its bottling partners are setting the standard for the industry by encouraging people to recycle and save one bottle or can for each one they sell by 2030.
"We are working on ways to develop a circular economy that is good for society and profitable for our company. According to Pottie de Bruyn, General Manager of CCBA Namibia, "We've set ambitious goals for our business, to take responsibility for our packaging across its lifecycle and reduce plastic waste pollution.
The only mechanical recycler in Namibia currently recycling up to 200 tonnes of LD plastics per month is NPR, a division of Plastic Packaging. Through this partnership, NPR will increase plastic recycling to more than 400 tonnes monthly, ensuring that Namibia develops a circular economy for plastics.
The two businesses committed to working together by signing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), promising to increase the number of women and young people who are gainfully employed in the recycling of the plastic waste in addition to accelerating PET collection and recycling nationwide.
Partnerships are a key component of this ambition, and today we are getting closer to achieving our goal, said Bruyn. "We are very proud of the partnership that we have built over the years with The Plastic Packaging Group," he added.
Through its Empowering Collectors Initiative, the beverage company has given a grant to the Growing Business Foundation (GBF) in Nigeria to strengthen the value chain for managing plastic waste (ECI).
GBF, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations Initiative, was established 21 years ago with the goal of eradicating poverty and fostering a healthy, sustainable way of life among Nigeria's most vulnerable citizens.
The ECI was primarily created to enhance the country's largely unorganized system for collecting, collecting, and recycling plastic waste.
Through an organised and aggressive system that targets 25,000 MT of waste in 24 months, the new partnership seeks to increase environmental resilience by halting the flow of plastic waste, particularly PET, to waterways and landfills.
