Petco encourages the youth to be involved in environmental jobs

Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) Petco kickstarted World Youth Skills Day on July 11, at the Killarney Country Club, with a dialogue centered around climate action.

The United Nations General Assembly established July 15 as World Youth Skills Day and observed it for the first time in July 2015. This day aims to spread awareness and develop an understanding of the importance of youth skills to counter the challenges of unemployment and underemployment faced by young people globally.

Petco represented the plastic industry’s efforts to self-regulate the recycling of post-consumer polyethene terephthalate (PET) from 2004 to 2022. Today, Petco administers Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for PET packaging, a range of plastic closures, and labels (HDPE, PP, BOPP which are found on bottles and jars), for liquid board and packaging.

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Petco’s marketing manager, Kara Levy, said the company aimed to equip the youth with the necessary skills.

“World Youth Skills Day provides us with a unique opportunity to acknowledge and support the talent and ambitions of young people across South Africa. With one of the highest youth unemployment rates globally, we must bridge the skills gap and create more opportunities for the youth to participate in, and contribute to, our country’s economic growth, whether in the informal or formal sector.”

How Petco works
The PRO and its members in the form of retailers, brand owners, and importers pay a fee based on the number of packaging they place on the market.

Levy explained, “As of the end of 2021, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment made it mandatory that all producers either start their scheme or join a producer-responsible organisation to ensure that the packaging they place in the market is collected [and] recycled after consumers use the product.”

The value chain
The collection of recyclables can be done in a few ways and starts with a consumer ensuring he/she separates their litter from their landfill waste.

“Petco encourages people to put their waste in a black bag, and recyclables in a clear bag. After that, people can either give it to a waste picker, employ a collection company that collects recyclables from homes, participate in a municipal curb-side connection project, or take it to a drop-off site or buyback centre,” explained the marketing manager.

Levy encouraged people to talk to waste pickers to find the material required to be collected. After that, the collector will take the recyclables to a buyback centre, the centre will pay that person, and squash it into blocks, or take it to a bigger buyback centre, which will compress it, and sell it to a recycler, who will do the processing of the material into food packaging, containers, or polyester.

Infographic
2022 Highlights:
• 28 members were successfully registered with Petco: 20 brand owner members, 6 converter members, and 2 co-packer members.
• 121 369 tons of packaging were placed on the market by Petco members, comprised mostly of bottles and jars along with their labels and closures.
• More than 99% of EPR fees due by members for 2022 were fully paid.

The year 2023 stood as a testament to the severe impacts of climate change, emphasised sharply at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) held in the United Arab Emirates. The event highlighted the urgent need for intervention as the globe witnessed record-breaking temperatures, extreme weather events, and rising sea levels.

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Petco’s performance in 2023

• The recycling sector faced challenges marked by heightened inflation and a decreased demand for recycled PET (rPET), pitting recyclers against a surplus of rPET, as many brand owners reverted to cheaper virgin PET.
• Brand owners opt for what is perceived to be cheaper virgin PET and fail to account for the environmental costs and benefits associated with a comparison of virgin PET and rPET therefore a shift in this pricing equation is needed.
• There is also a growing recognition of the limitations of voluntary Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and waste management mechanisms that have prompted a stronger push for more legal instruments.
• The drafting of the UN’s global treaty to end plastic pollution is gaining momentum. It will forge how nation-states develop and adopt national policies to tackle plastic pollution.