EGYPT – Nestlé Egypt in support of government’s environment protection strategy has launched the Plastic Packaging Material Recovery and Recycling initiative known as Dorna.
Dorna is a socially-inclusive program aimed to reduce plastic waste and adopts a reverse credit system to simultaneously create social, economic, and environmental impact.
According to reports by Daily News Egypt, the project is undertaken in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Environment; CID Consulting, one of the nation’s leading consulting firms and Paymob, a digital payment service provider.
It’s main point of focus is recycling of plastic bottles and reducing utilization of single-use plastics.
“Nestlé International has identified 20 countries that use 50% of world plastics, including Egypt, and we seek to improve recycling rates there.”
Chairperson and CEO of Nestlé North East Africa – Moataz El Hout
Moataz El Hout, Chairperson and CEO of Nestlé North East Africa, said, “The initiative comes as a reflection of Nestlé’s global commitment to highlight the importance of food to improve quality of life.”
It builds on the food giant’s 2018 commitment of making 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.
“Nestlé International has identified 20 countries that use 50% of world plastics, including Egypt, and we seek to improve recycling rates there. The initiative focuses on supporting and stimulating plastic recycling and collection in Cairo as a start,” El Hout added.
In order to achieve this initiative, Nestlé cooperated with Paymob as a technical partner to design and implement a digital platform to record processes and quantities of recycled plastics.
The platform will pay each individual registered in the system for his contribution to the initiative through electronic wallets every month.
Early in January, the Swiss company said that it would cut costs in other parts of its business to free up more than 1.5 billion Swiss francs (US$1.6 billion) to buy 2 million metric tons of recycled plastic between now and 2025.
Nestlé said it would be paying above the market rate for the recycled material, part of its strategy to alleviate a shortage of used plastics suitable for food packaging by luring new suppliers into the business.
Doing so should help the company meet its goal of reducing its use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025.
In line with the initiative, Nestlé Côte d’Ivoire recently partnered with the municipality of Cocody, in the greater Abidjan area to launch a plastic waste management project.
The project, christened “J’aime Cocody, loin de ma lagune les déchets plastiques” (I love Cocody, far from my lagoon plastic waste); aims to reduce plastic pollution in the lagoon bays of the Cocody municipality.
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
