KENYA – Coca-Cola Beverage Africa (CCBA) has signed a 3-year Memorandum of Understanding with VetLab Sports Club and T3-Kenya to sustainably recycle 100% of plastic bottles used within VetLab Sports Club.
T3-Kenya is a bottle-to-fashion recycling company converting plastic waste into garments while being a social enterprise.
Under the agreement, T3-Kenya will recycle all plastic bottles collected during and after games at the VetLab Sports Club located in Nairobi.
This move is in line with the World Without Waste initiative launched in 2018 by The Coca-Cola Company that targets to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle it sells globally by 2030.
In Kenya, the consumption of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles has increased over the years mainly due to an increase in the consumption of bottled water.
The millions of PET plastic bottles used annually end up in the waste mainstream because Kenya has no widespread infrastructure to deal with solid waste.
Reusable, valuable resources sit alongside the garbage in a landfill, the burn pit, or the street. Plastic bottles now constitute the biggest challenge to solid waste management in the country.
Millions of kilograms of plastic waste are generated each year most of that is in the form of plastic bottles, which Kenyans discard on the roads, fields, beaches and lakes causing serious environmental problems.
T3 -Kenya capitalizes on the opportunities in the recycled resin and manufactures yarn and textile engineered from 100% post-consumer beverage and water bottles sourced, processed and spun into yarn exclusively made in Kenya.
This project offers a sustainable solution that reduces environmental impacts within the industry by converting waste into recycled products equal in quality to the original yarn, thread and textile.
This will have remarkable savings in terms of energy and water in textile manufacturing hence providing a holistic approach to this national problem.
The end product is derived from 100% recycled post-consumer plastic waste using a mechanical – not chemical process.
There is a limitless range of products that can be produced from the yarn with levels of quality equal to virgin polyester equivalents, but with considerable resource and cost savings for the environment.
The partnership follows CCBA, T3 and PETCO deal launched in 2019 to provide innovative solutions to bale post-consumer PET plastic in order to ease their transportation for recycling and manufacturing.
CCBA plans to continue providing innovative ways for plastic waste management in partnership with major players in the sector not only in Kenya but also across the continent.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE
