The Coca Cola Company, Diageo, Unilever and Nestlé have launched the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance.
The Alliance, which was formed at the recent Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, aims to turn the current challenge of plastic waste in Sub Saharan Africa into an opportunity to create jobs and commercial activity by improving the collection and recycling of plastics.
According to This Day, a statement jointly issued by the companies stated that the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance was established for companies to facilitate and support their local subsidiaries to engage proactively in market level public private partnerships, industry collaboration and alliances in the area of share knowledge, encourage innovation and collaborate on technical and other solutions appropriate for Sub-Saharan Africa as well as participate in local pilot initiatives.
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It was also designed to engage with the investment community, policy makers and others to accelerate the development and financing of the necessary waste management infrastructure and systems.
“Plastics will remain an important packaging material if we are to give African consumers the safe and affordable products they need. Unfortunately, a lack of collection and recycling capacity in many African markets coupled with growing populations is creating a growing problem of plastics waste.
“We see an opportunity to tackle that problem in a way that creates jobs and reduces dependency on imported materials while alternatives to plastics are developed,” the statement stated.
The companies also indicated that collaboration within and across markets will be key to success so the companies decided to launch the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance to increase those efforts and play their part as companies in finding solutions that work for Africa.
Yetunde Adegoke
