BD Clean-Up & Recycle Week (Sept 17 2021)

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BusinessDay www.businessday.co.za Friday 17 September 2021

INSIGHTS

NATIONAL CLEAN-UP & RECYCLE SA WEEK 2021 Sponsored content

Industry body Clean-ups require collective action broadens focus to all plastics

• Polyco responds to regulations, writes Lynette Dicey

I

n response to the new waste management regulations, the Polyolefin Responsibility Organisation (Polyco) announced in August that it had broadened its focus to all plastic types under the extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations, to increase its support to producers to manage their product’s life cycle responsibly.

The new EPR regulations, which are due to be implemented from November 5, make it mandatory for producers to join a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) like Polyco, Fibre Circle, Petco, MetPac-SA and the Glass Recycling Company, among others, or form one themselves.

Either through their PROs or independent schemes, producers are now legally mandated to manage their products at end of life to grow the downstream reuse and recycling of their materials to achieve the published legislated targets.

Producers include not only packaging manufacturers but also brand owners, retailers, licensee agents and importers.

The challenge with these new EPR regulations, explains Polyco CEO Patricia Pillay, is producers who manufacture more than one type of plastic packaging were required to join more than one PRO to cover their full product range. As a result, Polyco made the decision to manage all plastic polymer types in its mandate.

Since its inception in 2011 Polyco has focused on making waste a valuable resource that works for the economy. Its aim is to grow the collection and recycling of plastic packaging in

Polyco CEO Patricia Pillay.

Quinton Williams … pervasive.

SA to reduce the amount of plastic packaging going to landfill and end plastic waste in the environment.

Established as a nonprofit organisation by a group of responsible polyolefin plastic packaging converters to deal with polymer identification codes 2, 4, 5 and 7, for the past decade Polyco has represented the largest polymer group in SA and has been the driving force behind 26,000 tons of polyolefin plastics recycled and 64,000 tons collected.

The decision to broaden its focus to cover all plastics means the organisation is now a onestop shop to improve the collection and recycling of all polymer types. To this end, the Polystyrene Association of SA and VinylLoop — the EPR arm of the Southern African Vinyls Association — merged its operations with those of Polyco with effect from September 1 2021.

Polyco business manager Quinton Williams explains that the organisation supports producers by growing plastic recycling through collaboration with multiple stakeholders

along the recycling value chain, investment in recycling innovation and infrastructure in SA, and through educating both the industry and consumers about recycling.

The introduction of EPR regulations, he says, plays an important role in minimising the amount of waste that goes into landfill or that lands up in the environment. “Government has big targets to divert waste from landfill. SA’s EPR regulations — while not perfect — are a good starting point and a useful mechanism to achieve this.”

Despite the new regulations, SA still faces numerous challenges when it comes to recycling. “We don’t have enough collection or recycling facilities around the country,” says Williams. “Added to this we urgently need to grow the capacity of existing recycling companies, while creating demand for waste products.

“The challenge is for recycling to become more pervasive throughout the country, getting consumers to understand the process and to separate their recycling waste at source.”

This year marks the 25th year that Plastics SA will be coordinating SA’s participation in the International Coastal CleanUp and World Cleanup Day taking place tomorrow. Both these events will form a key part of the annual Clean-Up & Recycle SA Week this week (September 13-18).

The issue of plastic litter and other waste material entering the marine environment attracted little attention 25 years ago. Today, it is a major focus of governments, industry and individuals around the world, says Douw Steyn, Plastics SA’s Sustainability Director.

“Thanks to this awareness, we are seeing much greater support and participation in beach, river and inland cleanups from communities, corporates, municipalities and national government.”

In most cases, says Steyn, these have sprung from the International Coastal Clean-Up Day, which remains the largest global volunteer effort for ocean health. He also reports that the demographic make-up of volunteers has changed over the years — attracting participation from all walks of life, different age groups and nationalities.

“We’ve already distributed more than 350,000 refuse bags that will be used for this year’s clean-ups and are expecting well over 13,000 volunteers to participate in beach clean-ups and as many as 80,000 volunteers at inland clean-ups.”

Douw Steyn … waste has value.

The two main clean-up initiatives — International Coastal Clean-Up Day and Clean-Up & Recycle SA Week — complement each other because litter and pollution are clearly not just an issue for coastal regions, explains Steyn.

“The bulk of the plastic litter that ends up on SA’s beaches and in the ocean is transported there by inland river systems.”

The annual Clean-Up & Recycle SA Week, the newly launched River Clean-Up Day on September 15, National Recycling Day on September 17 and SA’s participation in the World Clean-up Day and International Coastal Clean-Up Day on September 18 are vital platforms for raising education and awareness, and for everyone to be part of the solution.

“This annual public awareness week is supported by all the packaging streams in SA to work towards removing visible litter from our country’s

neighbourhoods and streets, rivers, streams, beaches and oceans,” says Steyn, adding that there is a need to reinforce the message that waste has a value, and that recycling can create much-needed jobs.

“There’s a big need among recyclers for clean, good quality material that has been collected and separated for recycling,” he says. “These materials are used in a myriad ways in applications ranging from lightweight cement to household items and even brand name sneakers and clothing manufactured from ocean waste.”

Recycling waste has a positive impact on the amount of waste being diverted from landfill. “Don’t forget that in SA many coastal areas targeted during Clean-Up & Recycle SA Week are rural areas where collection for recycling is still in its infancy and where effective waste management services by local municipalities are lacking.”

Plastics SA works closely with these communities — as well as inland communities — who assist with the cleaning up of rivers and streams. The umbrella body for the plastics industry provides logistical support to clean various rivers in the Durban Metropole, Gqeberha’s Motherwell and Swartkops waterways and waterways in the Cape Town Metropole, he says.

Support is given to various organisations nationally by making items such as refuse bags, gloves, rakes, spades, waders, boots, piping and nets for water barriers to capture floating debris available.

“In the Cape Town Metropole, for example, we have started retrieving as much plastic material from rivers and streams as possible before they end up in the ocean. Most of this material is made of rigid plastics such as buckets, containers and bottles and is therefore highly

recyclable. Unfortunately, due to little or no municipal services in the poorer areas, waterways are often treated as conduits to remove all waste material, resulting in water pollution.”

Littering and dumping material — irrespective of whether it is flicking a cigarette butt out of a car window, throwing a chip packet on the beach or dumping building rubble in empty areas — is both socially unacceptable and environmentally irresponsible, argues Steyn.

“The quality of waste management in SA is improving, but we need to continue putting pressure on municipalities — particularly in rural areas — as well as communities, to start seeing waste as a valuable resource that creates employment and should be collected and recycled. That’s the only way to build a truly circular economy,” he says.

Call for unified response to regulations The amended extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations require producers and importers in the electrical, lighting and paper and packaging sectors to take practical and financial responsibility for the end-of-life of a range of identified products.

“EPR is a globally applied approach and will change how producers, brand owners, retailers and importers design, make and sell their products to keep them in a circular

COMMON PROBLEMS CAN ONLY BENEFIT FROM SHARED SOLUTIONS

production and recycling loop as long as practically possible,” says Francois Marais, GM of Fibre Circle, the producer responsibility organisation (PRO) for the paper and paper packaging sector.

SA’s EPR regulations aim to provide the framework for the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EPR schemes by producers, ensuring the effective and efficient management of the identified product at the end of its life and encouraging and enabling the implementation of the circular economy initiatives.

In terms of the paper sector, any South African company or brand that makes or imports paper or paper packaging for distribution in SA is required to pay an EPR fee per sales ton of product.

The paper products included in the new regulations are newspapers; magazines; office, graphic, mixed and other

Francois Marais … collaboration. papers; corrugated cases and kraft paper; liquid board packaging; and labels and paper sacks. Each of these categories has been set yearly collection and recycling targets for the next five years.

The regulations also make the producer or group of producers responsible for the establishment of an EPR scheme, the development and

implementation of an EPR plan and compliance against each product’s targets for recovery and recycling.

Marais says that while the new EPR legislation allows for producers to establish their own EPR scheme, it is more sensible to join an existing scheme that has been established by a recognised and registered PRO. “We advise companies and brand owners against going it alone as this could become more onerous and costly.”

With industry collaboration critical to the success of EPR, Fibre Circle has invited all producers and importers of paper and paper packaging products — whether primary, secondary or tertiary — to join the EPR scheme under its banner. According to Marais, the benefit of this is that the industry’s interests can be collectively represented. Fibre Circle works with member

companies in similar product classes to identify shared constraints and opportunities for collaboration and optimisation among member companies, municipalities, other PROs and the informal sector.

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

“EPR will see an investment in collection infrastructure, not only providing consumers with more convenient recycling facilities but also a concerted recovery effort at the preconsumer or postindustrial phase. Intensive consumer awareness campaigns will also help to drive behaviour change,” he adds.

“We are making our circle bigger to reduce the burden on the environment, take responsibility for our products and support a thriving circular economy. When it comes to preserving our planet, common problems can only benefit from shared solutions.”

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BusinessDay www.businessday.co.za Friday 17 September 2021

INSIGHTS: NATIONAL CLEAN-UP & RECYCLE SA WEEK 2021

Paper industry working hard to grow the circular economy increases •itsThis contribution to climate change and employment

T

he circular economy is predicated on a closed loop of taking, making and re-using, as opposed to the linear “take-make-waste” approach.

The problem with the linear model is clear, says Jane Molony, executive director of the Paper Manufacturers Association of SA. “When we treat raw materials such as wood, water and energy as infinite, we end up with waste.

Waste costs money — which in itself is waste, especially when you consider the costs of landfilling, the loss of reusable materials and the livelihoods that could have been supported.

There are also losses at the expense of the environment — greenhouse gas emissions when waste degrades.”

She explains that the circular economy is based on three core principles: engineering out waste, retaining materials in circulation and restoring the systems from which resources are extracted.

“Contrary to popular belief and opinion, the paper industry has for many years adopted the circular approach,” reveals Molony.

“Even the fibres in recycled paper came from a tree at some point in their lives. In SA’s case,

Jane Moloney … stewardship. these trees are sustainably farmed in plantations, with stringent management of their impact on water, soil, neighbouring indigenous landscapes and biodiversity.”

Sustainable forest management balances economic, social and environmental needs. While forestry practices optimise the land’s ability to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration, they also act as buffers for protected indigenous areas.

Depending on the species — usually eucalyptus or pine — these trees take about seven to 10 years to reach maturity, she says, adding that the reason SA uses exotic species is both because they are fast-growing and based on the fact that we can’t use indigenous trees for wood or paper products.

“SA currently has 850million trees growing on more than 676,000 hectares reserved for pulp and papermaking,” she says. “Less than 10% of this total

area is harvested during the year. The same area is replanted with new trees — saplings — often at a ratio of two trees for each one harvested.

This is the first circle: plant, grow, harvest, replant.”

The circular economy in forestry, she explains, extends to leaving forest residues in fields as a mulch for the next generation of trees. After harvesting, bark, limbs, leaves and small parts of the harvested trees are left on the forest floor, offering sustenance and refuge for creatures that aid in the decomposition of organic matter, which in turn attracts birds — and so another circle is created.

In addition, through photosynthesis, trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into food for growth. They also take up water, from the ground or from rainfall. They keep the carbon locked up in their fibres, in return providing oxygen and returning some water to the atmosphere through transpiration.

Even pulp and paper mills operate in a closed loop process, by using natural resources efficiently — often more than once, says Molony.

“Process water is reused and recycled, lost fibre is recovered and reused, and spent chemicals are recovered for energy production. Even bark — a biomass — is used to power boilers, producing steam that generates electricity. The end result is that we are doing better at using more of the tree,

ensuring little goes to waste.”

Once paper and pulp are made into what we know — office paper, magazines, books, pizza boxes, cereal boxes, cardboard boxes, newspapers, milk and juice cartons, paper cups — the circle starts to hit home. Office paper can be printed on both sides, and boxes can be reused as storage.

“Paper fibres can be recycled up to seven times,” says Molony, adding that how we dispose of paper products creates another circle. “With a four-year average recovery rate of 70%, paper is the second most recovered material in SA.” The problem arises when consumers put discarded paper products in the rubbish bin which means they go to landfill — or if they are retrieved by a waste collector, they might get to a recycling mill.

Ultimately, what is required

is for consumers to apply some basic practices to recycling paper, says Molony. “Ideally, we want paper products separate from wet waste — this keeps them clean for recycling.

“Even the simple act of placing recycling in a separate bag or box for a waste collector who sells these back to a recycling mill makes a considerable difference.”

REPROCESSED

Recovered paper can be reprocessed and made into corrugated boxes, tissue, cereal boxes and moulded protective packaging — and can once again be recycled.

“And so the paper cycle — or circle — continues with the carbon staying locked up for longer when paper is recycled.”

This is the point where the circles get interesting. Some wood-based products are

already in circulation in everyday life. Dissolving wood pulp is used in the food, pharmaceutical and textile industries. Cellulose is used as a binder, emulsifier and filler. It’s in low-fat yoghurt, cheese and ice cream; it’s in the bathroom cabinet in lipsticks and vitamins.

“Our sector can extract xylitol from wood to make nonnutritive sweeteners, and it can also make bricks from paper sludge, the leftovers from the paper recycling process when fibres become too short for use.

We can make plastic, membranes and films with cellulose, and biodegradable alternatives to fossil fuels from lignin. We have students developing biodegradable fruit fly attractant sheets from nanocellulose, and controlled release fertiliser coated with cellulose, starch and diatomite.

We can make bio-based composites from paper sludge, and attractants for mosquitoes from cellulose-based materials.”

Increasing the circularity, she points out, not only increases the paper sector’s contribution to the economy and employment, but means the forest products sector can be recognised as part of the solution to climate change and green economic recovery.

Consumers also need to play their part by using pulp and paper products that are certified and responsibly produced.

“By recycling paper products, we can practise sound environmental stewardship and be part of the circle,” says Moloney.

Wipe makers aim to go green Around the world the wipe market — including sanitising wipes for the consumer market and the health care industry — is booming.

Smithers, a multinational provider of testing, consulting, information and compliance services, valued the nonwoven wipe market at $19.6bn in 2020. Growth in the industry is being driven by the fact that consumers are using more wipes than ever before.

Smithers says concerns over infection control will help the industry resist any recessionary downturn with a forecasted 9.1% compound annual growth rate between 2021 and 2026.

The biggest challenge with many of the wipes currently available in markets around the world is that they are made of synthetic fibres which prevent them from being compostable or recyclable. Globally, wipe manufacturers are therefore looking to develop more sustainable products both in response to increasing legislation such as the European Union’s Single Use Plastics Directive as well as consumer concerns around sustainability.

The ultimate aim is biodegradable, compostable or recyclable products which can form part of a circular economy.

Progress is being made. In the UK Kimberly-Clark has launched a new range of Huggies Pure Biodegradable

MANY WIPES ARE MADE OF SYNTHETIC FIBRES WHICH PREVENT THEM FROM BEING COMPOSTABLE OR RECYCLABLE

wipes made with 100% natural fibres that biodegrade after 15 days in simulated landfill conditions. Coterie, a US-based baby care brand, has launched a baby wipe which is 100% plantbased and which is both biodegradable and compostable.

The challenge, explains Annette Devenish, marketing director of Sani-touch, a South African manufacturer of a range of medical grade sanitisers and wipes for both the consumer and health care market, is that biodegradable nonwoven wipes are significantly more expensive that combination fibres.

“The challenge for manufacturers is that end users want a product that is 100% biodegradable but they are not prepared to pay more for these products.”

For its part Sani-touch is committed to finding sustainable solutions. Devenish reports that Sani-touch’s goal over the next six months is to convert all its products into either recyclable or biodegradable products — even if the company has to make margin sacrifices to achieve its sustainability goals. Its popular Sani-touch trolley wipes range, found at many retail entrances, is already available in both biodegradable paper and recyclable polypropylene.

“The challenge with any recyclable product — including wipes — is to close the sustainability circle by ensuring the end user actually separates the products and gets them to the correct recycling facilities,” she says. “The next challenge is to further commit to using the recycled material by actively using and promoting the use of repurposed products.”