Under the umbrella ‘African Plastics Recycling Alliance’, Diageo, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestle and Promasidor are brainstorming on sustainable ways of transforming palstic wastes into jobs and economic opportunities.
In a joint press release by the associating companies made available to FirstNigeriaNews, it was stated that the primary objective of the alliance was to improve collection and recycling capacity and systems which reflected the urgent need for collective action without excluding or implying a priority over other issues such
as reuse, reduction and packaging design that are equally necessary to tackling plastics waste in Africa.
The African Plastics Recycling Alliance was recently launched in Kigali, Rwanda during the convention of the Africa CEO Forum.
The joint press release reads thus:
We wish to tackle the threat plastics waste poses in Sub-Saharan Africa by turning this into an
opportunity to create jobs, promote economic activity and reduce import dependency through
improved collection and recycling.
We already have individual commitments to tackle plastics waste and collaborate through global
collective action, such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global
Commitment and are already engaged with national institutions and platforms in various markets.
However, limited collection and recycling capacity and systems combine with rapidly changing
and diverse markets to create specific challenges to implementing our commitments across much
of Sub-Saharan Africa.
We therefore commit to collaborate at regional level, working with key stakeholders to
strengthen and accelerate the collection and recycling of all kinds of plastics packaging by:
• Facilitating and supporting our local subsidiaries to engage proactively in market level
public private partnerships, industry collaboration and alliances.
• Sharing knowledge, encouraging innovation and collaborating on technical and other
solutions appropriate for Sub-Saharan Africa as well as participating in local pilot
initiatives.
• Engaging with the investment community, policy makers and others to accelerate the
development and financing of the necessary waste management infrastructure and
systems.
Our collaboration will focus on supporting local, market-led, practical solutions with the minimum
necessary bureaucracy at the regional level. Each company will collaborate in those markets and
on those issues where they add most value according to their scale and presence.
Any initiatives we develop under this collaboration will aim to have comprehensive plans, will be appropriate to
the local context and will be consistent with the principles of the New Plastics Economy Global
Commitment.
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