Hit the bottle

More than 2 billion plastic bottles were recycled in South Africa in 2016 that would otherwise have been dumped in landfill.

South Africa recycles nearly more than double the amount of PET plastics than the US, and is in the the top tier for recycling success worldwide.

Figures released last week by PETCO, the local PET plastic industry's agency for recycling, showed that SA had a bottle recycling rate of 55% in 2016 compared to 30% in the US. That meant that meant that over 90 000 tonnes of plastic were recycled last year, saving an estimated 563 000m3 of landfill.

CEO for PETCO Cheri Scholtz, said that even more importantly was that the recycling of PET created 62 000 income opportunities for small and micro-collectors.

“PETCO recyclers paid out R340-million last year to waste collectors and other cooperatives who collect PET bottles,” Scholtz said.

“Since PETCO's inception in 2005, recycling of PET plastics has contributed R4.4-billion to the economy.”

About 55% of recycled PET plastic in South Africa came from Gauteng, according to Scholtz, while the Western Cape and Kwazulu Natal contributed about 15% each.

PET is the type of plastic commonly used to make beverage bottles for carbonated soft drinks and bottled water, and can be recycled into clothing and home textiles among others.

Scholtz said that plastic packaging played a critical role in the preservation of food, but that “we need to do something with it at the end of it's life”.

A study by the WWF showed that it took about 1100  litres of water to make one litre of milk.

Scholtz said that in that assessment the packaging portion had the lowest carbon footprint, but played the most important role.

South Africa produces about 1.3 million tonnes of plastic annually according to Scholtz, nearly half of which was used for packaging.

Since 2005 PETCO has recycled enough bottles to save 800 000 tonnes of carbon and 3.2 million m3 of landfill.