Sustainable rPET strapping another boost for plastic recycling in SA

In a growing industry shift towards sustainable packaging and product design, one of South Africa’s largest manufacturers of wood-based products has decided to use only locally sourced and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) strapping.

According to PG Bison’s chief executive officer, Gerhard Victor, the company uses 9.1 million metres of plastic strapping per annum to bind its wooden surfacing and decorative panel products, with the recycled rPET material set to divert the equivalent of five million post-consumer plastic bottles or 115 tonnes of PET from landfills every year.

Instead of importing its signature green strapping from Italy, Victor said PG Bison would now source the local equivalent from Cape Town-based supplier Propet, which uses locally sourced post-consumer PET bottles in its manufacturing process.

PET Recycling Company (PETCO) chief executive Cheri Scholtz said the move was a boon for keeping plastic waste out of the environment. She said it was encouraging that industry was starting to see the bigger vision and economic value inherent in the recycling of PET.

“Nationally, the recycling rate for PET plastic is a significant 60+% per annum and comprises mainly clear and blue plastic bottles, which are more feasible to transform into a range of recycled materials including polyester fibre.

“What is exciting about rPET strapping is that it can be made from green plastic bottles, which have had a limited end-use market to date. As other manufacturers make the switch to locally sourced rPET strapping, like PG Bison has done, we’ll be able to make better use of coloured plastic and grow our overall recycling rates even further,” said Scholtz.

Victor said recycled strapping now conformed to stringent technical specifications, such as high tensile strength, and, most importantly, maintained the product stack integrity during handling and transportation.

“At PG Bison, we use strapping on almost every product that we manufacture. Because our wood is locally, responsibly and sustainably sourced, it was important for us to extend this approach to the packaging of our products too,” explained Victor.

“For safety reasons, the strapping is single-use, but it can be recycled after collection.”

Propet director Chandru Wadhwani said a responsible approach by more players in the manufacturing sector would assist the plastics industry to fulfil its extended producer responsibility and drive PET recycling rates in South Africa.

“As we have often witnessed, without willing users of products made from rPET, we would be leaving behind far more PET bottles destined for the landfills and oceans,” said Wadhwani.

Wadhwani added that the new production line for Pro-10 Strap™ featured the same European technology, by SIMA, used by strapping manufacturers worldwide.

“As such, quality requirements from customers like PG Bison will be met comfortably and, in some instances, surpassed. With its ISO accreditation, it also provides improved traceability and assurance of quality.”

He said this was another example of helping companies to meet their Extended Producer Responsibility objectives through the recycled PET value chain without any compromise on quality.