The Sunday Mail
BEVERAGE manufacturing companies have raised over US$1 million for the recycling of packaging materials as the entities race to meet the June 30 deadline issued by Government for firms to deal with pollution.
This follows grave concerns by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) over the rampant dumping of used bottles.
Last week, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Mr Charles Msipa told The Sunday Mail Extra that major beverage manufacturing firms have come up with a raft of ways of fighting pollution – chief among the strategies being the recycling of PET bottles mostly used in the packaging of soft drinks.
Mr Msipa said EMA warned companies against polluting the environment through dumping.
“The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) was against the dumping of used bottles in landfills as they are not bio-degradable hence the action that several beverage companies have taken is an effort to try and minimise pollution,” he said.
Mr Msipa said companies which contributed towards the fight against pollution include Schweppes, Dairibord Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, Lyons Maid, Tanganda, Delta Beverages, Coca-cola Central Africa, Mutare Bottling Company and Mega pack.
He noted that beverage companies were supposed to fund PET Recozim (Pvt) Ltd to capacitate the entity to buy equipment and machinery for the recycling of used packaging materials.
“The main objective is to financially fund PET Company of Zimbabwe in order to facilitate the processing of used packaging materials,” he added.
PET Recozim chief operating officer Mr Tawanda Masuka also confirmed beverage manufacturing companies contributed over US$1 million to fund operations.
“To date the companies have invested over $US 1 million to capitalise the business and fund operations,” he said.
Mr Masuka urged companies which are either directly or indirectly responsible for generating PET waste to contribute to the project to ensure a clean environment.
“The unique feature of this project is that membership is open to all companies that are directly or indirectly responsible for generating PET waste (being bottlers, converters, brand owners and retailers) as it offers a huge opportunity for extended producer responsibility,” he said.
The installation and commissioning of a recently imported re-cycling plant was underway at PET Recozim Private Limited in Harare.
“The plant’s function is to process PET waste to avoid increased visibility of PET bottles in the waste streams.
“The plant is practically a washing and flaking plant that converts PET bottles (usually post-consumer) into flakes which is base raw material for polyester fibre production.
The plant has input capacity of 500 kgs per hour,” he said. Action against pollution by the companies follows Government intervention. In May, Government toughened its stance on polluters after creating an inter-ministerial committee on water pollution comprising six ministries. The committee then ordered the companies and local authorities to address pollution by June 30, failure of which they would face closure which the companies say they are addessing.
