New Alliance Gives Big Boost to Plastic Recycling in Sub-Saharan Africa

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Major consumer goods companies operating across Africa have joined together to form a new alliance. The official launch of the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance (APRA) took place last month during the 7^th Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, Rwanda.

Various multinational companies including Nestle, Unilever, The Coca Cola Company and Diageo are part of the newly formed alliance. The companies will lend support to their local subsidiaries to engage in numerous market-level industry collaborations to boost sustainable recycling solutions for plastic waste. They will promote innovation, share knowledge and participate in local pilot initiatives that suit the region.

According to APRA, it aims to boost collection and recycling of plastics, which in turn will help to create immense job opportunities in the region and at the same time tackle plastic pollution. The APRA member companies will do the needful to develop and finance collection and recycling infrastructure and systems. Incidentally, the growing plastic pollution in the African region is mainly attributed to lack of collection and recycling capacity, it notes.

The above companies have already announced ambitious targets to reduce plastic pollution. For instance, Nestle and Unilever aims to make 100% of its packaging reusable or recyclable by 2050. Also, Unilever and Coca Cola has committed to use of 25% and 50% recycled content by 2050 and 2030 respectively. Diageo aims to achieve 100% recycled content use by 2030.