Stanbic Bank Uganda, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa and Nice House of Plastics have joined hands in a collaborative partnership to promote responsible use and re-cycling of plastic waste as a means of sustaining environmental protection.
Speaking during the signing of the MoU, Stanbic Chief Executive Anne Juuko said, “This landmark partnership brings together Stanbic Bank Uganda, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) in Uganda, and Nice House of Plastics, with support from Kampala City Council (KCCA) in an initiative that will promote the sustainable waste management of plastics in Uganda.”
“This is a first of its kind in the country, where private sector players will collaborate to promote sustainable recycling of plastics through an ecosystem underpinned by value addition to create end products and ultimately protect the environment,” she added
Stanbic’s role in the new collaboration will be in providing the necessary finance and advisory expertise to promote sustainable waste management of plastics.
Juuko said, “As Stanbic Bank, we are proud to be the financial advisors in this initiative as it also aligns to our social, economic and environmental (SEE) priorities. Stanbic is committed to promoting sustainability through our activities and increase opportunities to deliver sustainable and impactful investment expertise to our clients.”
In the MoU the companies agree to support waste segregation initiatives in communities and plastic collection centres to increase the volume of safely managed plastics.
The companies will also make the necessary effort to engage plastic manufacturing companies to set up plastic collection centres in the communities as part of an extended producer responsibility to increase the amount of plastics collected and channeled to the recycling project.
Simon Kaheru, the Public Affairs and Communications Director speaking on behalf of Mr. Melkamu Abebe, General Manager of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa entities in Uganda (Century and Rwenzori Bottling Companies) said, “I thank Stanbic Bank for bringing us together. Plastic Waste recycling is a key component of our Sustainability focus in the Coca-Cola system. As you know, we have a global initiative called ‘world without waste’ under which we commit to help collect and recycle 100% of the PET waste generated by consumers,” he said.
“In Uganda, we run Plastic Recycling Industries, an initiative under which we fund the collection and delivery of plastic waste from the environment to our recycling plant in Kyambogo-Nakawa. There, we turn this waste into flakes that can be used to manufacture products like lumber for furniture, pavers, thermofoam for packaging and fibre,” he said.
Mr. Abebe said the company was committed to collaborations that embed the culture of plastic waste separation and recycling and called on all Ugandans to join and support such initiatives.
Under the MoU, CCBA’s Plastic Recycling Industries will collect and supply PET Flakes as raw materials for Nice House of Plastics to create finished products.
Nice House of Plastics Managing Director Barbara Mulwana said the partnership will provide them with the much needed plastic raw materials which will be used in production of their products.
“Recycled PET is one of the major raw materials that we use in our work. We have previously imported some of it and this collaboration will go a long way in solving our raw material problem and promoting a safe environment,” she said.
Nice House of Plastics will then use the recycled plastics that will be further modified through value-addition to create final products in form of among others; Yarn-Fibre, Wood Plastic Composite and rPET (recycled PET).
Dr. Najib Bateganya Lukooya, the Deputy Director Environment and Public Health at the Kampala Capital City Authority thanked Stanbic Bank for the innovative approach to handling waste which will go a long way in helping KCCA in its efforts but also provide end products like manhole covers and other products which can be used by the authority and other members of the public.
“Waste management is one of the most expensive activities for the authority. We tried to reduce the costs in 2015 by doing waste mining by removing waste that had accumulated over the years and giving it to farmers, unfortunately these failed due to huge composition of plastic waste. We are grateful for partnerships like these which will go a long way in supplementing our efforts by recycling the plastic and turning it in to useful products,” he said.
Juuko said, “Together, we shall be creating an ecosystem that will promote the collection and recycling of plastics to save the environment as well as provide a market for valued added recycled plastics that can be used locally in the Ugandan market.”
She said environment sustainability must remain a priority for all organisations as they shall each contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. “I’d like to urge other private sector players to join our efforts to promote recycling of plastics and be a part of the value addition ecosystem that will promote the creation of Ugandan locally made products,” she concluded.
