SAPRO Best Recycled Product Awards wow!

A simple shipping pallet made from recycled plastic, manufactured by Palletplast, trumped twenty seven other semi-finalists winning the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation (SAPRO) Best Recycled Plastic Product Awards 2019.

Dubbed “the Oscars of the Plastics Industry”, the Best Recycled Plastic Product Awards were held on Monday, 04 November 2019 at Workshop17, V&A Waterfront Cape Town. The Awards recognize and showcase industry innovation and the wide variety of local products that are designed and manufactured using recycled plastics .

With production starting only this year, using PET trays, coloured bottles and other waste that to date has not been recycled, the Palletplast rPET Pallet won not only the Newcomer Award, sponsored by PlasticsSA, and Engineering Award, but was honoured as Overall Winner, exemplifying innovation in the full value chain and as a product that best showcases recycling of post-consumer plastics.

Winners of other categories included

• Unilever’s Sunlight dishwashing liquid bottle- manufactured from 100 % rPET- winning the Inclusive Award sponsored by Polyco (for products made from 100% post-consumer plastic collected, recycled and converted in South Africa)
• Duro Stack’s fibre-reinforced pallet- with 15 % of its recycled content comprising problematic multi-layer material waste stream winning the Number 7 Award (for products made from a mixed plastics, collected, recycled and converted in South Africa)
• Premier Plastics’s 100% recycled content supermarket carrier bag range- which made a switch from virgin materials to 100% recycled content in response to consumer and retailer demand, creating a market for 11 000 tons of recycled polyethylene in the last 12 months, aptly winning the  Switch Award (for products that divert large volumes of postconsumer plastic from landfill)
• Leading retailers Clicks, Shoprite Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths, were awarded the Board Award (for commitment to collaboration and mutually beneficial innovation, changing the  landscape in the production and consumption of single use plastics).

SAPRO Chairman, Johann Conradie commended  the efforts of these retailers for removing calcium carbonate from their shopping bags and the inclusion of at least  70% recycled material, making the bulk of the shopping bags on the market 100% recyclable. “This signals that retailers are taking  Extended Producer Responsibility seriously, becoming stewards of our environment and ensuring that the costs of disposal of their products are not externalized. We see this, along with the adoption of a standardised approach to On Pack Recycling Logos, as noteworthy in signalling commitment to the South African Plastics Pact, markedly shifting the needle and pace in our transition to a new circular economy for plastics!” he says.

SAPRO is an organisation that represents plastic recyclers, providing them a voice in the value-chain, to grow plastic recycling in South Africa. As a cornerstone of the SAPRO strategy to grow demand for recycled plastic, the Awards create a competitive environment for retailers, brand owners, convertors and recyclers to include ever more recycled plastics in their products.

Along with Polyco as Gold Sponsors, the event was supported by Relloy Erema as Silver Sponsors, PlasticsISA as Category Sponsors as well as Venue partner Workshop 17, the Ad Shop, Skyland Masterbatch & Polymers cc and the PET Plastics Recycling Company (PETCO). “This is an ideal platform for organisations to demonstrate their commitment to the environment and resource efficiency as well as their alignment with global initiatives that catalyse change in industry. Working towards a circular economy for plastics, creating more jobs and business growth- together”” concludes Conradie.