Cape Town - New statistics from the PET Recycling Company (Petco) indicate that the country’s PET plastic recycling rates were finally recovering after the Covid-19 lockdowns, which restricted the movement of informal collectors.
These figures show that more than 2 billion PET bottles were diverted from landfill last year thanks to various recycling efforts.
Earlier this year, waste management experts warned that parts of South Africa could soon run out of landfill space, thus the recycling company was pleased to find that their efforts saved an area equivalent to 560495 cubic metres and prevented potential associated carbon emissions of 135604 tons in 2021.
Petco CEO Cheri Scholtz said: “PET plastic recycling rates were drastically affected during the lockdown. Under the lockdown regulations, movement restrictions rendered many waste pickers unable to participate in the collection of recyclables.
“The persistence of lockdown also facilitated a shift in consumption patterns towards at-home consumption and thereby changed packaging formats to bigger bottles. This all contributed to constrained collection of PET bottles and therefore reduced feedstock to our recycling partners.”
Once lockdown regulations eased, Scholtz said they made a concerted effort to stimulate collection by supporting informal waste pickers and formal collection businesses, buy-back centres and recyclers, and encouraged them to grow capacity and capability.
One of the specific efforts undertaken included increasing capacity for the informal sector. PETCO contributed R3.65 million in support of buy-back centres and informal collectors through equipment provision and skills development.
Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning spokesperson Rudolf van Jaarsveldt said waste pickers played a huge role in the recovery of packaging waste.
“They play a crucial role in the absence of waste separation at source to recover recyclables from the waste stream, which would otherwise be unnecessarily landfilled. They are the source of recovered material to buy-back centres (BBC), who in turn will sell on to recycling companies,” Van Jaarsveldt said.
PETCO chairperson Tshidi Ramogase said they were also encouraged to see that after two years of grappling with economic volatility in the grip of a pandemic, the group was starting to see a glimmer of economic recovery.
