BY SILAS APOLLO
Tetra Pak East Africa has joined hands with the Packaging Producer Responsibility Organisation (PAKPRO) in what it says is a move that seeks to help it increase its efforts to drive collection and recycling.
The company, in a statement on Wednesday said that it has joined forces with the well-established Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) with effect on May 23, 2023.
Tetra Pak East Africa managing director Jonathan Kinisu said that the decision to partner with PRO was driven by the need for greater collaboration to improve the collection and recycling of Liquid Board Packaging (LBP) in Kenya.
Mr Kinisu said that venture will also help cement Tetra Pak’s initiatives on collection and recycling of LBP in Kenya, which are well documented and aligned with the recently gazetted Sustainable Waste Management Act, 2022.
“A critical pillar of our sustainability strategy is founded on our commitment to a low-carbon circular economy. At Tetra Pak, we are acutely aware of the broader impact of our operations on the environment and society and as such we are always striving to find more progressive ways to continue protecting what’s good,” said Mr Kinisu.
“As Tetra Pak East Africa, we are proud to be joining forces with other stakeholders, which will help us unite to build a circular economy together in Kenya. Packaging has and continues to offer essential functionalities,” he added.
Ms Joyce Gachugi – Waweru, chief executive officer of Packaging Producer Responsibility Organisation said that the new partnership was an alignment of the mission and the vision of the two organisations.
“As we seek to leverage each other’s networks in strengthening the LBP value chain in the country, we are keen to ensure that more than just compliance is met for Tetra Pak, but that they too can participate in scaling the impact we have developed over the last five years by creating decent jobs for waste collectors, diverting post-consumer packaging from the landfills and dumpsites into the production of new materials,” she said.
Tetra Pak has been actively engaging all stakeholders, including the government, PROs, collectors, and recyclers, and taking the lead to support the development of a strong ecosystem for collection and recycling of carton packages.
PAKPRO on the other hand, has a successful track record in supporting recycling value chains in Kenya. PAKPRO will be administering an EPR scheme to cater for the LBP sector from June month 2023, in addition to the other EPR schemes already being offered by PAKPRO.
As part of this joining of forces, Tetra Pak and PAKPRO said that they commit to improving awareness by increasing educational activities among the Kenyan public on issues related to segregation and collection.
In addition, the scheme will be implementing a model for value chain support to stimulate collection and increase end-use demand for recycled content.
There is already existing recycling capacity and infrastructure in the country that has been developed over the years, and the intended model will seek to maximize use of this.
Recycling is at the centre of a low-carbon circular economy that aims to reduce waste and keep materials in use for longer. LBP can be recycled and transformed into a wide range of new products.
However, segregation at source, collection and sorting are critical for recycling to work. Tetra Pak believes that EPR regulations are essential and in line with the company’s ambitions of improving the recycling value chain.
The success of a circular economy requires collaboration beyond the traditional boundaries of business operators. Our partnership with PAKPRO will ensure that both partners bring together a network of producers, collectors, suppliers, and other key stakeholders to develop the circularity of LBP in the country.
