Safripol walked away with top recognition at the 2022 PETCO Awards and scooped the Recycling Partnership Gamechanger award. This award recognises partnerships, including government (municipal, provincial or national), regulatory agencies, community organisations and private industry, that have successfully implemented game-changing initiatives that has resulted in meaningful recycling outcomes or breakthroughs.

One of the major bottle-necks in the recycling industry in South Africa is access to high quality and quantity feedstock. At the 2022 PETCO awards, Safripol was recognised for the impact of its sustainability projects in advancing waste collection and recycling in the country.

Motivated by the African proverb “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together,” over the past year Safripol has partnered with various stakeholders in the value-chain including waste reclaimers, buy-back centres, PRO’s, NGO’s, and local communities to unlock waste collection and advance recycling in the country.

Some of the initiatives implemented for the past year include:

– Implementation of litter booms along the lower uMngeni River catchment: This is a joint partnership between Safripol, PETCO, Green Corridors NPC, and Trieco and involves grass-roots implementation of litter booms across strategic water ways along the lower uMngeni River to trap and intercept waterborne litter for recovery and reuse in the recycling industry or for material beneficiation.

– Implementation of Separation at Source (S@S): Safripol has implemented S@S across all of its facilities and together with PETCO has developed an educational S@S video for dissemination to all stakeholders. 47,000 clear recycling bags were also sponsored to all of its employees to support S@S at their homes. Over the reporting period, Safripol diverted 26% i.e. 19 tons of its post-consumer waste away from landfills and recovered it for recycling.

– Sponsorship of bulk bags and recycling bins for waste collection projects nation-wide: To support the unsung heroes of the recycling industry, i.e. the waste reclaimers, Safripol sponsored 2000 new bulk bags, 900 used bulk bags (from its own operations), and 500 color-coded recycling bins to its partners PETCO and Green Corridors NPC. for distribution to waste collection and recycling projects nation-wide.

– Support for buy-back centers: Safripol provided further support to Bophelo Buy-back center and equipped it with a generator to enable it to be fully operational and to increase its collection volumes and revenue-earning potential.

– Safripol and its partners arranged clean-ups during International Clean-up week in Parys along the Vaal River and another alongside the uMngeni Riverbanks at the Blue Lagoon where 1 ton of materials was collected and recovered for recycling.

Through the various interventions of this past year, and the commitment of all its partners, Safripol’s sustainability projects are gaining momentum, but more importantly, it is creating ripples of change and bringing awareness to the value of plastics and the importance of recycling and proper waste management practices.

Below is a video of Avashnee Chetty discussing the Safripol initiatives and partnerships that enabled this award:

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