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CCBSA - Partners to Help Address Plastic Waste
Nozicelo Ngcobo: CCBSA Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability Director (PACS)
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CCBSA PARTNERS WITH GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITIES
TO HELP ADDRESS PLASTIC WASTE
Food and beverage packaging plays an important part of our modern lives, yet the world has a packaging problem, which we as Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA), together with The Coca-Cola Company, have a responsibility to help solve.
We recognise that alone we cannot solve this challenge, but through strategically orchestrated partnerships with government and the community, we can at least start envisioning and creating a waste and plastic free environment. This is why through several public-private partnerships, CCBSA is empowering communities to collect and recycle plastic waste. One of these projects is the Good Green Deeds initiative, a community clean-up operation which falls under the scope of Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Barbara Creecy.
The initiative is a continuation of the programme launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa in March 2019 to highlight the importance of “active citizenry in the protection of natural resources and proper waste management in the environment”.
The Good Green Deeds campaign is a nationwide initiative that seeks to change people’s attitudes, behaviours towards responsible management of waste, and keeping their neighbourhoods clean, green and safe. The objective for the Good Green Deeds Programme is a positive drive towards a clean South Africa which is free of litter and illegal dumping
According to the Department of Environmental Affairs’ State of Waste Report (SoWR), South Africa produced in excess of 54 million tonnes of waste in 2017. Of this total, the report estimated that a maximum of only 10% is recycled or recovered for other uses, whilst the remainder ends up in landfills or is illegally dumped elsewhere.
Nozicelo Ngcobo, CCBSA Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability Director (PACS) said: “We support government’s waste management objective of creating recycling awareness through this campaign. Through these public-private partnerships, we aim to change society’s attitude and behaviour towards responsible management of waste and keeping our communities clean and waste free.”
Clean-up initiatives are in line with the Coke system’s World Without Waste Vision 2030, to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030. We’re working to bring people and communities together to help preserve our planet.
“We can only bring about meaningful change if we work together through different partnerships, be it registered Producer Responsible Organisations (PROs), like the PET Recycling company (PETCO) community based waste reclaimers. The fast-moving consumer goods industry has an important duty to reduce waste in the environment through an effective waste collection and recycling market, as well as awareness building and environmentallyfriendly materials,” adds Ngcobo.
“We want to use our industry leadership position to be part of the solution by encouraging our consumers and citizens to separate and recycle their waste.” CCBSA is committed to producing, packaging and selling products in a responsible way to ensure a sustainable future and making post-consumer packaging part of a circular economy - an economic system aimed at eliminating waste through the continual use of existing, valuable resources - to improve collection and recycling rates.
CCBSA is bringing people together through programmes like the Good Green Deeds initiative, and participates in the International Coastal Clean-up >
(ICC) during September, where CCBSA leads beach and river clean-ups and other ongoing local community activities in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. The clean-ups are also linked with Clean-up and Recycle Week (12 to 17 September), highlighting the importance of waste collection and creating a circular economy through recycling and waste management, ultimately contributing to a clean environment.
ICC has been held internationally each year since 1986, when people head to the beaches and begin removing debris and rubbish from shorelines, waterways, and the oceans. The ICC initiative worldwide remains the largest volunteer environmental data-gathering effort and clean-up event of coastal and underwater areas to date.
In 2018, The Coca Cola Company announced its World Without Waste Vision 2030, where the company has committed itself to:
• Collect and recycle the equivalent for every bottle or can it sells by 2030
• 100% recyclable packaging by 2025 • PET bottles made of 50% recyclable material by 2030;
PET is a safe, recyclable packaging material made from Polyethylene Terephthalate.
To further support the World Without Waste vision, the company designed an innovative 2L returnable, also known as refillable PET bottle (RefPET) and launched it in 2020 in the Eastern Cape, and rolled out in Gauteng, Limpopo, North-West, Mpumalanga and parts of the Free State. The most recent launch was in Mangaung and Northern Cape. “RefPET serves two critical purposes, to offer consumers value for money and including them as an important part of the recycling value chain and reducing waste that would otherwise be destined to landfills. We are proud of this initiative and it has proven to be successful particularly in areas where waste man-agement is important,” Ngcobo said.
CCBSA is further committed to creating and supporting waste collection and recycling systems across its footprint where they didn’t exist previously. CCBSA does this by improving collection and recycling rates educating people about the importance of recycling and material reuse and supports the setting up of buy-back centres. CCBSA is using more recycled content, reducing the amount of plastic in our bottles (light-weighting) and using plant-based resins in some of our ottles. The goal is to set a new global standard. In South Africa, the 500ml Bonaqua bottles are made out of 100% recycled PET (rPET)”.
“Ultimately, we measure our business success not only according to growth and profits, but also by doing business the right way – following our values and working toward solutions that benefit not only us all but generations to come,” concludes Ngcobo.
Contact Details: Consumer Contact Centre Phone: +27 (0)11 644 0666 E-Mail: ccsainfo@coca-cola.com
Address: Linbro Business Park, 5 Milkyway Ave, Frankenwald, Johannesburg, 2065
