Safripol makes bottle-to-bottle recycling a reality for South Africa

The plastic bottle that gets thrown away can end up back on the shelves as a new product in a development that is an important leap forward in the drive to achieve a true circular economy for plastic.

Achieving sustainability targets

What’s good for the environment is good for everyone, including business.

Aspire®, a new, recycled polyethylene terephthalate or rPET product incorporating 15% and 25% post-consumer recycled plastic resin, is available to Safripol customers as a ‘one bag’ solution.

In commercial terms that means that convertors have access to a single product, with no need for them to mix, that contains recycled post-consumer waste at levels that comply with national legislation and global regulations.

In fact, Aspire® allows for product that exceeds the stipulations of the South African Waste Act and has Recycled Content Certification and Food Contact Compliance Approval.

The development of Safripol’s recycled polymer portfolio is also aligned with the government’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation which is now in its second year of implementation.

Nico van Niekerk, chief executive officer of Safripol said: “We are leveraging our technical expertise, state-of-the-art polymerisation infrastructure, operational excellence, and economies of scale to address the circular economy and provide a competitive product to the market aligned with the mandated extended producer responsibility targets for recycling and recycled content. Safripol is being seen as a leading voice in plastic sustainability.”

A product that’s making a difference

The new product is making a meaningful difference to sustainability across the recycling value chain. With bottle-to-bottle recycling a reality, it will become more obvious to consumers that plastic waste has a real value, encouraging greater efforts to recycle. Waste reclaimers will get more plastic waste, buy-back centres will collect and process more plastic, and manufacturers will create more products using recycled material.

That means less plastic in landfills already reaching capacity and a reduction in carbon emissions. We limit the need to make virgin plastic, reducing energy use, lowering our carbon footprint, and therefore making progress in the efforts to reduce climate change.