Foreword

PETCO is the trading name of the PET Recycling Company NPC South Africa, a not-for-profit company incorporated in 2004. PETCO fulfils the PET industry’s role of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), being a voluntary industry driven and financed environmental solution for post-consumer PET plastic and the vehicle through which the PET industry self-regulates and co-ordinates its recycling activities. To achieve this, everyone involved, from Government to the raw material producers, converters, brand owners, retailers, consumers, and recyclers, play their part in the solution. By imposing accountability over the entire life cycle of PET products and packaging, companies that manufacture, import and/or sell PET products and packaging are financially and physically responsible for such products after their useful life.

PETCO is not involved in the physical collection or recycling of waste PET in South Africa, choosing to remain outside of the PET recycling value chain. Instead, it acts as a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) that financially supports, on behalf of its members, activities along the waste PET value chain. This model presents the lowest risk to all stakeholders, negates the need for PET EPR funding becoming a drain on the national fiscus, and is the most cost-efficient solution for society. PETCO members include brand owners, resin producers, converters, and bottlers. Visit www.petco.co.za for more information.

PETCO has created this user-friendly, fun, and factual Educators’ Workbook to help teach learners how their actions can have a less harmful impact on the environment. They will learn that littering is a bad habit, as well as the different things that can be done with waste. By completing the activities together with your learners, you will teach them lessons that they will remember for life. The activities, which are aligned to the CAPS curriculum, cover the Life Skills curriculum standards and have been designed to ensure that learners have fun while learning.

You can assist your learners by encouraging them not to litter, and to:

• reduce waste;
• reuse materials; and
• collect materials that can be recycled.

Here is a quick overview of the CAPS-aligned content that you will find in this educational pack:

Grade 1: Life Skills – My community
Grade 2: Life Skills – People who help us
Grade 3: Life Skills – Recycling

Learn more by downloading the Educating future leaders by teaching them to care for the environment – Educator Workbook Grade 1 – 3 PDF below: