Of this volume, 69%, or 83 967 tonnes of post-consumer packaging, was collected for recycling, with a total recycling rate of 66% achieved.
In addition, PETCO’s financial support for one of its contracted recycling partners facilitated the availability of 25 000 tonnes of food-grade recycled PET (rPET) for inclusion in new product packaging, helping the broader sector to meet its recycled content targets.
The data also reveals that PETCO helped its members surpass Year 1 government targets for collecting:
- PET beverage bottles
- plastic PET oil bottles
- single-use PET products – covering home, food and personal care
- polyolefin rigids
PETCO chief executive officer Cheri Scholtz said she was proud of the role the organisation played in driving change across the packaging value chain towards a circular economy in which “packaging can be repurposed back into packaging”.
While PROs struggled to come to grips with the Year 1 reporting requirements set by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Scholtz said the organisation had used its 17 years of experience operating under a voluntary model to assist its members in transitioning to the mandatory EPR environment.
“The results we’ve achieved are due to the commitment of our members. We appreciate their partnership and inputs in navigating this new EPR space together.”
Scholtz said PETCO had developed a new, more robust EPR declaration system to simplify the reporting process for members.
“In order to report more accurately on the various identified products for which we’ve enabled the collection, PETCO undertook a bale characterisation study to better understand the typical composition of a PET bale which is purchased by our contracted recyclers.
“In combination, through our member declarations, regular recycler audits and bale sampling assessments, we are able to report with greater granularity. This assists us to meet our DFFE reporting requirements and shows our diverse membership how we are tracking their particular identified products,” said Scholtz.
This year, PETCO also introduced an EPR scheme for liquid board packaging (LBP), which will be included in the reporting for Year 2.
“In offering an EPR scheme for LBP, we see immediate synergies for a number of our members that already sell products in both PET and LBP. We also know that the waste streams within which we work are not exclusive to PET and, as such, expanding our focus to include LBP is relatively simple for our teams in the field.
“In Year 2, we will continue with our member engagement workshops and work closely with our members for higher impact.
“PETCO remains committed to working with our members and all tiers of government to achieve EPR regulatory targets and to enable our members to meet their reporting requirements, both Section 18 EPR requirements and their own. We’ll continue to lead the implementation of EPR in South Africa,” said Scholtz.
Investing in the value chain:
In 2022, on behalf of its members, PETCO invested R54.9 million in support of the collection and recycling value chain, helping to improve the integration of the informal collection sector, increase the street value of recyclable waste, and build the capacity of its contracted recycling partners.
Highlights included:
- supporting 104 projects – inclusive of waste collectors, SMMEs and co-operatives – in all nine provinces with equipment such as baling machines, trailers, trolleys and scales;
- engaging with national and provincial government departments, as well as 46 municipalities across all nine provinces; and
- running 40 training and awareness workshops across eight provinces, covering topics such as collecting and sorting recyclable materials, how to market a business and record keeping for waste collection SMMEs.
