Pick n Pay has signed up as a member of Polystyrene Association of South Africa (PolySA) – the Extended Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) focused on promoting recycling of polystyrene and creating a positive environmental outlook for this versatile packaging material in South Africa.
Adri Spangenberg, PolySA’s CEO, extended a warm welcome to Pick n Pay and applauded its decision to comply with the new Section 18 EPR legislation that makes it compulsory for all producers, converters, brand owners, retailers and importers of packaging to either belong to a PRO or to have formed their own independent EPR scheme. Over the past several months, Poly SA has been making concerted efforts to encourage brand owners, retailers and other role-players across the entire value chain to sign up to the PRO in order to demonstrate their commitment to Extended Producer Responsibility. Apart from Pick n Pay, the Association has also recently welcomed industry stalwarts Goldpack, Pakeks and Plaslantic as new members.
Commenting on their motivation for joining PolySA, Pick n Pay Sustainability General Manager, Andre Nel, explains that supporting the various PRO’s operating in the country’s packaging landscape is an important step towards long-term sustainable change and supporting a true circular waste economy.
“As one of SA’s leading retailers, we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and encourage our suppliers and customers to join us on this journey. The more we work together to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill and develop new end-markets for recycled material, the greater the difference we can make. For this reason, we wanted to show our support for PolySA, who for the past 12 years have been focused on establishing and growing the polystyrene recycling industry in the country,” Nel says.
“Our goal is to minimize the environmental impact of post-consumer and post-industrial polystyrene through the effective collection and recycling all packaging polystyrene by means of our various recycling projects. We are also increasingly fulfilling the role of a facilitator between the recyclers and suppliers of recycled polystyrene and the buyers representing the various end-markets. This has allowed us to achieve impressive results and managed to grow the recycling rate of polystyrene in South Africa year by year. We applaud the big step taken by brand owners and retailers such as Pick n Pay whose membership help to support our recycling and collection efforts through an annual levy or by financially supporting one of our many Enterprise Development and Corporate Social Investment Projects that are aimed at job creation, empowerment and improving the lives of the less fortunate. Together, we are creating lasting change for our industry, our country and the environment for generations to come! Adri concludes.