Recycling company Petco has recycled some 22% more post-consumer bottles in 2016, pushing its yearly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling rate from 52% to 55% in 2016.
This marked the second year that Petco has exceeded its recycling target, with the total PET market growing by 14.8% to 241 269 t year-on-year.
“Two-billion PET bottles were collected for recycling across South Africa during the course of 2016, creating some 62 000 income opportunities for small and micro-collectors, and changing their lives and those of their families in immeasurable ways,” said Petco CEO Cheri Scholtz in a statement on Tuesday.
Petco’s contracted recyclers have paid out some R1.9-billion to collectors for baled bottles since the inception of Petco in 2004, made possible through the voluntary recycling fee paid each year by Petco members on every tonne of raw material purchased.
This had offset almost 800 000 t of carbon dioxide emissions and saved over three-million cubic metres of landfill space, to date.
“Petco’s achievement of collecting 90 749 t in 2016 was beyond remarkable,” said Petco board member and Extrupet joint MD Chandru Wadhwani.
South Africa’s 55% recycling rate is comparable to international PET recycling rates, with the US rate of post-consumer PET recycling at around 30% and the European average rates at around 59%.