The tide is turning against plastic waste as the world marks Earth Day today (April 22), with increasing co-operation between private companies, communities, NGOs, government entities and religious organizations to tackle the issue.
Voltic (GH), a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), has pioneered recycling projects in communities and tertiary institutions, created opportunities for women and youth in local communities through buying and selling of plastic bottles and established partnerships with NGOs, government entities and churches as the company seeks to heighten awareness of the importance of proper waste management.
Most recently, Voltic employees led a beach cleanup exercise at Laboma Beach to collect more than 20 bags of post-consumer waste for disposal by Beach Cleanup Ghana.
The organization uses smart technology solutions to clean and maintain beaches and waterbodies while creating employment opportunities in the circular economy.
Earlier this year, the ‘Say No to Single Use Plastic’ team joined Voltic and members of the University of Ghana Plastic Recycling Project to distribute free cloth shopping bags to households to discourage the use of black polythene bags.
And Voltic held plastic bottle buy-back events at Legon in the Greater Accra Region in January and February, supplying more than 200 households with recycling bags and creating awareness of proper ways to manage plastic waste.
The company held another buy-back event at Asokore – Mampong in the Ashanti Region and also donated recycling bins to the Joy2 The World International School, as well as educating staff and students on how to dispose of post-consumer waste properly through segregation.
Voltic’s Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Manager, Worlasi Seddoh Bedu-Mensah said the company was committed to the Coca-Cola System’s World Without Waste initiative, which has set ambitious targets to help collect a bottle for every one it sells by 2030, make all its packaging 100% recyclable by 2025 and use 50% recycled content in its packaging in the same year. It will also aim to make 25% of its packaging reusable by 2030.
“Our commitment is to invest in our planet and our packaging to help make the world’s packaging problem a thing of the past,” said Mrs. Seddoh Bedu-Mensah.
“To encourage more people to recycle more often, we’re investing to help people understand what to recycle, how to recycle, and where to recycle. We also plan to work with local communities, NGOs, our competitors, and our critics to highlight this critical issue.”
Voltic has partnered with plastic waste aggregators to collect bottles from pickup points across Accra and facilitate the buying and selling of plastic bottles to establish a circular economy for plastic waste.
As part of its #IRecycle project in partnership with Total Energies and plastic waste recycling companies like Coliba, SESA and Beach Cleanup Ghana, Voltic is installing recycling bins at some Total filling stations and other strategic points across the capital.
This goes hand-in-hand with building awareness of proper post-consumer waste management habits like waste segregation, which improves the value that waste pickers get for the plastic they collect, while recyclers can buy cleaner waste bottles as raw materials.
“We are a proud industry leader in developing increasingly sustainable ways to manufacture, distribute and sell our products,” said Mrs. Seddoh Bedu-Mensah.
“As part of the CCBA group, we use our industry leadership to be part of the solution to achieve positive change in the world and to build a more sustainable future for our planet.”
