Bottle to bottle a major achievement

Did you know that in our country all the used PET containers ‘your clear beverage and water bottles’ collected for recycling are recycled into local products? Unlike many other countries, we don’t export these resources to China, but create mainly fibre and more recently new foodgrade packaging.

This means that as more and more post consumer PET bottles are collected, so end-use markets need to expand and develop. The largest end-use market for post consumer PET bottles in South African is currently the fibre market (Bottle to Fibre). More recently, there is installed capacity for post consumer PET bottles, to be recycled into new PET containers (bottle-2-foodgrade). B2FG resin take-up is still relatively slow. PETCO is working with retailers and brand owners to increase the demand for PET recyclate.

PETCO is the non-profit industry body responsible for facilitating and driving PET plastic recycling in South Africa. Consisting mainly of plastic bottles, PET is identified with a number 1 polymer identification code near or at the bottom of the container. Established in 2004 with the mission to minimize the environmental impact that post-consumer PET has on the SA landscape, PET plastic recycling has since grown from 9840 tons in 2004 to 37 842 tons in 2010. Today 3 million PET bottles are recycled each day. These recycling rates have been achieved in partnership with contracted service providers Extrupet, Kaymac and Sen Li Da who combine collection, recycling and end-use in their PET value chain.

Closing the loop

Discarded post-consumer PET bottles are collected, baled and delivered to the recycler. Presently too many of these are still collected from landfill. In the recycling plant, bottle tops are removed (they are made from PP - Polypropylene) and the bottles are inspected and sorted according to colour, and any bottles that are not made of PET are removed. The sorted bottles are then granulated into flakes, which go through numerous hot and cold washes and eventually end up in a flotation basin to separate the remaining non-PET material.

PET has a higher density than other plastics (except for PVC) and it will sink, while the other materials e.g. paper from labels, will rise to the top and float. These flakes are then dried and extruded into pellets. The finished product takes the form of small clear pellets which are supplied to end-users for production into a number of items we encounter every day:

• fibre for polyester carpet;
• fabric for T-shirts and
• most importantly back into new PET containers for both food and non-food products.

The venture has created over 18 000 in the informal collector segment.

Education for all

PETCO also supports 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, bailing equipment, bulk bag collection and training are initiated together with support from the Plastics I SA.

Workshops for members, on topics such as designing PET bottles and containers with recycling in mind to reduce contamination, are hosted by PETCO around South Africa. Together with major retailers Woolworths and Pick ‘n Pay, PETCO has established the ‘Retailers for Recycling Forum, which aims to minimize the environmental impact of post consumer packaging on the South African landscape.

This is done by creating awareness amongst consumers of recycling issues and supporting retailers as they work with their own suppliers to ensure that packaging is designed with reduction, re-use and recycling in mind. PETCO hopes this will include all retailers and also all packaging materials as it unfolds.

Best recycled product award

Recently Polypet won the ‘Best Recycled product of the year competition’ hosted by The South African Recycling Organisation (SAPRO) for their 1.5 litre recycled PET (rPET) juice bottle that is sold at Woolworths.

‘This bottle is an excellent example of how major retailers can influence an industry when they make a commitment towards environmental responsibility and sustainabilit,’ adds Cheri Scholtz, Chairperson of Plastics SA’s Sustainability Council and CEO of PETCO. ‘In 2010 alone, 99 400 tons of PET was used in beverage bottles.

“Through collective effort and a united vision of reducing our impact on the environment, we were able to achieve the most sustainable use for resources, namely the ability to ‘close the loop’ recycling a bottle back into a bottle and creating a vital new end-use market for the 3 million PET bottles currently being recycled daily in South Africa,” Scholtz says.

“By using rPET in the Woolworths 1.5 litre juice bottle, it paves the way for other brand owners and converters to utilise the growing percentage of recycled post-consumer PET bottles available in our country instead of relying on virgin PET”, she says.

Greening the future

This year PETCO was honoured at The Mail and Guardian’s prestigious Green the Future Awards, an annual event that celebrates the achievements by companies and organisations at the forefront of ensuring a sustained and healthy planet for all people. PETCO received a special commendation for the work they’ve been doing to promote recycling of PET in South Africa. The awards are designed to inspire innovation and action to address the causes of climate change, reduce impacts on our resources and improve eco-efficiency in people.

Recycling 1 ton of PET plastic bottles saves 1.5 ton of carbon and it also decreases the need for raw materials and saves energy. Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W light bulb for up to 6 hours!

PETCO is working with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and stiff collection targets for 2015 have already been set:

• the public and private sector to put a cost- effective separation at source strategy in place
• to implement kerbside collection more widely
• to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover plastics much more efficiently than we do at the moment and
• to avoid altogether plastics from going to landfill.

Low recycling rates negatively affect the ability to supply markets and will not encourage new projects.

PETCO is a member of the Recovery Action Group (RAG) and this group which represents the packaging waste stream, has put together a draft Industry Paper and Packaging Waste Management Plan. Ultimately this plan will be used to improve the collection of recyclables from the municipal solid waste stream prior to landfill.

PETCO urges all involved in the PET packaging industry chain to become members of PETCO, in order to protect and promote PET growth, awareness, recycling and reuse. A strong membership base also helps the PET industry to influence national environmental authorities.