News

Industries

Companies

Jobs

Events

People

Video

Audio

Galleries

My Biz

Submit content

My Account

Advertise with us

All the Sapro Best Recycled Plastic Product Awards 2023 winners

The South African Plastic Recycling Organisation (Sapro) recently hosted its 9th biennial Best Recycled Plastic Product Awards ceremony. The gala dinner event was held at the Table Bay Hotel in the V&A Waterfront of Cape Town where more than a 100 guests gathered to enjoy a fine dining experience, live music, stand-up comedy by Conrad Koch, networking and the announcement of 16 awards.
Sapro team, sponsors Erema & Polyco, and the overall winner; SFG Technologies. Image supplied
Sapro team, sponsors Erema & Polyco, and the overall winner; SFG Technologies. Image supplied

The guests represented companies of plastic recyclers, plastics converters, brand owners, retailers, and producer responsibility organisations (PROs).

Bronze, silver and gold were awarded in five categories for Best Recycled Plastic Products, namely; construction and building products, agriculture and related products, household, leisure and consumer-related products, personal care products, and other rigid packaging.

The judges under the leadership of Plastics SA selected winners against the criteria of; uniqueness, difficulty to recycle, technical achievement, marketability, fit for purpose and tonnages recycled. Special emphasis was given to marketability as consumer involvement and buy-in were seen as the new frontier in the development of recycling industries.

Gold winners and their products in each category, in order, were; Supreme Mouldings – wall panels, SFG Technologies - planter box, Incredapeg, MyPlas / Mpact / Unilever - Organics shampoo flip top lid, and PolyOak – Contan bucket.

The overall winner was selected from these gold winners, which went to the SFG Technologies planter box. This product boasts a well-built, 70% recycled content planter box that is robust and increases crop productivity in a water and resource-efficient way.

The boxes are being produced in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture to equip emerging farmers and low-income homes to produce crops. There have already been 36,000 of these boxes produced and they are planning to expand to other provinces. The value that this project has for the reputation of recycled plastics is invaluable.

The event also saw the launch of the Sapro Platinum Design Principles certificate, which acknowledges best-in-class design for recycling. The first Platinum Design Principles badge was awarded to Spar for their all-white, all-HDPE milk bottle.

Special mentions from the judges went to the Viro Solutions juice bottle for including consumers in the circularity journey of the packaging and the Do More Foundation for their B.Blox toy which creates artisan jobs, recycles HIPS and makes toys for ECD childcare centres.

The Sapro Best Recycled Plastic Product Awards would not have been possible without our generous sponsors. Platinum sponsorships came from Polyco and Erema. Our silver sponsor was Winelands Plastics & Imports. The other sponsors were, Plastics SA, Packaging SA, Petco, and Hume Machinery. Wine was sponsored by Spier and the award certificate frames were sponsored by Supreme Mouldings.

Full winners list

Construction and building products

  • Finalist – Tufflex – Picket fence
  • Finalist – CRDC – Resin8
  • Silver - DC Plastics – Underfloor sheeting
  • Gold - Supreme Mouldings – Wall panels

  • Agriculture and related products
  • Bronze – DC Plastics - Mulch Film
  • Silver - KR Polymers – R-Grape
  • Gold - SFG Technologies / Africa Plastics / Hart Automotive - Planter box

  • Household, leisure and consumer related products
  • Finalist – Sanitouch – Bird feeder
  • Bronze – Shoprite - Checkers Trolleys
  • Silver - Usabco – Addis Eco Living Range
  • Gold - Incredapeg

  • Personal care products
  • Bronze – Alpla / Unilever – Radox bottle
  • Silver – Myplas / Berry Astrapak / Unilever – Deodorant Screw Cap
  • Gold – MyPlas / Mpact / Unilever - Organics shampoo flip top lid

  • Other Rigid Packaging
  • Finalist – Polyoak Packaging - Multilayer HDPE drum
  • Finalist – Alpla / Unilever – Robertsons rPET spice bottle
  • Finalist – Nampak – rPET juice bottle
  • Bronze – Ipackchem – 20 litre drum
  • Silver – Viro Solutions – Juice bottle
  • Gold – PolyOak / HB Plastics – Contan bucket


  • Overall Winner
  • SFG Technologies / Africa Plastics / Hart Automotive – Planter box

  • Let's do Biz