Kenya will benefit from a Ksh 3.8 billion (US$38 million) fund by the Coca-Cola Company to stimulate plastic recycling industries and create awareness on plastic waste pollution in the Southern, East and Central Africa over the next three years.
The Coca-Cola Company is accelerating the collection and recycling of PET plastic bottles across Southern & East Africa to commemorate Global Recycling Day being marked today. This is part of a focused World Without Waste campaign over three years and beyond.
This is part of Coca-Cola’s commitment to fully participate in the solution to address the plastic pollution problem and to accelerate the implementation of its global World Without Waste vision, which aims to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of the packaging it sells by 2030.
“We have formulated strategies to ensure that our post-consumer plastic bottles do not pollute the environment as wastes. We are creating value from our bottles in a bid to drive and sustain a green economy,” said Ahmed Rady, General Manager, Coca-Cola East & Central Africa Franchise.
The campaign will fast track three pillars of the World Without Waste vision namely Design; Collect; and Partner. The idea is to design bottles which are easy to recycle and are themselves made partly out of recycled material; create collecting opportunities by stimulating recycling industries; and partnering with others in the value chain to reduce plastic waste.
In Kenya, Coca-Cola and its bottling partners joined industry partners last year to form PET Recycling Company Limited (PETCO Kenya) to spearhead initiatives to collect and recycle PET bottles and packaging, as well create a favourable environment for the investment of additional capital in the PET sector in both production and recycling.