The South African Plastics Recycling Organisation (SAPRO) and the Plastics Industry’s Enviromark have announced the winners of their ‘100% Recycled, 100% Creative’ competition at a prize giving event that was held at the Plastics Federation’s offices in Midrand earlier today.

The overall winner for the best recycled product and winner of the Gold Award and the PACSA Floating Trophy for Best Recycled Product was the Narrow Gauge Rail Sleeper produced by Tufflex. These sleepers are to be used in mines where vigorous compliance testing is done before a product is accepted. The sleeper is made from recycled plastic and replaces the traditional concrete and wooden sleepers, is hard enough for the traditional fastening device and flexible enough to prevent snapping during continuous usage.

Four Silver Awards for Best Recycled Product were awarded to:

Polyplank pallets that are made from 100 % difficult-to-recycle multi-layer plastic laminates. They can be repaired and compete with equivalent wooden pallets in weight.
Motard Ride-On by Blomo Plastics, a slightly modified version of this very popular toy, made from 100 % recycled milk- and fabric softener bottles.
Droppers by Vorplas, are fencing droppers made from contaminated plastic waste. Vorplas has removed more than 9000 tons of plastic waste from the surrounding farms in the last 14 years in the manufacture of these droppers that offer various advantages over wooden or steel droppers.
Garbage Bag by Tuffy Manufacturing. Tuffy’s black bag on a roll (BOR 2225) refuse bags are manufactured from 100 % recycled material. The refuse bag extends the recycling message in the Tuffy Brand environmental projects.

Marking the industry’s national Recycling Day, which encourages South Africans to recycle at home, school and at work and to buy products made with recycled material, this year’s competition saw 19 finalists compete for the PACSA Floating Trophy for the Best Recycled Product.

“The plastics recycling industry in South Africa is well established and growing,” said Douw Steyn, Environmental Director of the Plastics Federation of South Africa (PFSA). “We’re already seeing plastic being recycled into a wide variety of products, such as fibre, carpets, plastic bins and containers, pipes, gumboots, picture frames and plastic timber that look like wood. The challenge, however, lies in educating consumers about recycled plastic and developing new ideas and markets for the products,” he added.

Converters to show applications

Earlier this year, the call went out to recyclers and converters to enter into the competition to publicize the uses and applications for recycled plastic in various sectors, namely packaging, transport, mining, textile, sport and recreation, furniture, agriculture, building and construction and clothing.

‘The objective of the competition was to promote recycled plastic products, their environmental advantages and as a result, also increase the request for recyclables,’ explained SAPRO’s Annabe Pretorius. ‘We were very impressed with variety and quality of this year’s entries, which have come from as far afield as Tzaneen in the north and Cape Town in the south.

Delivering the opening address to the finalists and their families, industry role players, Miss Earth finalists and media in the Plastic Federation’s auditorium in Midrand, was Dr Hanneline Smit, Manager of Birdlife SA’s Conservation Division (Oppenheimer Fellow of Conservation), who spoke about BirdLife South Africa’s work, the Plastic Federation funded Marine Important Bird Areas work, and plastic pollution in the marine environment.

The Judges

The four judges who had the difficult job of reviewing the entries and finally deciding upon the winners, were:

Mike Bullock – Plastics Converters Association
Andrew Marthinusen – SA Packaging Council (PACSA)
Mohamed Shaik Amod – Investment Banker (Account Manager at IDC)
Frik Pretorius – representing the consumers

Conclusion

‘It was a very difficult choice to make as each entry displayed creativity, skill and created a new outlet for packaging material. The scope and quality of the entries clearly demonstrated the versatility of recycled plastic in a host of different uses and applications’, says Andrew Mathinusen, Executive Director of the Packaging Council of South Africa (PACSA).

The sponsors, judges and finalists all agreed that this was an exciting, relevant competition which will grow from strength to strength.