Kenya to Benefit from Coca-Cola’s Kshs 3.8 Billion Push Cutting Plastic Waste in 3 years

Coca-Cola global World Without Waste campaign aims to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of the packaging it sells by 2030.

Kenya will benefit from over Kshs 3.8 billion fund by the Coca-Cola Company to stimulate plastic recycling industries and create awareness on plastic waste pollution in the Southern, East and Central Africa over the next three years.

This is part of the pledge made by the world’s largest beverage company to tackle a global “packaging problem” by cutting waste.

“We have formulated strategies to ensure that our post-consumer plastic bottles do not pollute the environment as wastes. We are creating value from our bottles in a bid to drive and sustain a green economy,” said Ahmed Rady, General Manager, Coca-Cola East & Central Africa Franchise.

The beverage company, which uses 120bn bottles a year, says it will collect and recycle the equivalent of all its packaging by 2030. It will also aim to make all of its packaging with an average of 50% recycled content by the same date.

The campaign will fast track three pillars of the World Without Waste vision namely Design; Collect; and Partner. The idea is to design bottles which are easy to recycle and are themselves made partly out of recycled material; create collecting opportunities by stimulating recycling industries, and partnering with others in the value chain to reduce plastic waste.

In Kenya, Coca-Cola and its bottling partners joined industry partners last year to form PET Recycling Company Limited (PETCO Kenya) to spearhead initiatives to collect and recycle PET bottles and packaging, as well create a favourable environment for the investment of additional capital in the PET sector in both production and recycling.

In 2019 the plan is to accelerate collection and recycling in partnership with industry through establishing Voluntary Extended Producer Responsibility (VEPR) schemes similar to PETCO in other markets. The company will support more community clean-up activities as well as empower communities through basic business education to increase waste recycling infrastructure and job creation.

The Coca-Cola Company 5by20 project which seeks to enable the economic empowerment of five million women entrepreneurs across the company’s global value chain by the year 2020.

In Kenya, 5by20 artisans at Acacia Creations create fun, environmentally conscious decorations for profit, transforming Coca-Cola beverage packaging and unused telephone wire into “canimals” such as giraffes, elephants, dinosaurs and reindeer. Acacia Creations has helped connect more than 1,000 artisans across six countries with a global marketplace to sell their jewelry and home décor.

“We are creating a solution as a total approach to address waste pollution through the entire packaging lifestyle. This Global Recycling Day we look forward to a future where we can work in partnership with our key stakeholders to create an Africa without waste, at the same time as creating jobs and creating awareness to our people,” Ahmed Rady added.