In the month of June alone, our members attended a steering committee meeting, two Target 1 action group meetings, one Target 2 meeting and one Target 4 action group meeting, as well as a webinar on our SA Plastics Pact Roadmap to achieve our 2025 targets. 144 attendees in one month!
Our enthusiasm for collaboration and commitment to our targets are key ingredients to the success of our SA Plastics Pact.
The SA Plastics PAct would like to take this opportunity to highlight the steering committee members, who were elected by the initial group of SA Plastics Pact founding members in December 2019.
The committee members are focussed on driving change and progress towards a circular economy for plastics in South Africa. As steercomm members, rather than representing the interests of their companies, they represent the plastics value chain, adding the perspective of their sectors to the Pact’s strategy and discussions.
- Convertors: Michelle Penlington (Polyoak)
- Brand owners: Douglas Greig (Tuffy), Eric Leong Son/ Blain van Wyk (Distell), Sinethemba Kameni (Tiger Brands), Preola Adam (Unilever)
- Retailers: Feroz Koor (Woolworths), Kevin O’Brien (Spar, committee chair), Andre Nel/ Roan Snyman (Pick n Pay), Tallia Ficalbi-Hobbs (Clicks)
- Food services: Joe Stead (The Spur Group)
- Waste management: Louis Mahlangu (the African Reclaimers’ Organisation)
- Recyclers: Johann Conradie (Myplas)
- Government: Dumisani Buthelezi (the Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, National Government)
- Non-membership based NGOs: Juliet Lennon (the Ellen MacArthur Foundation), Lorren de Kock (WWF)
The steering committee was set up to serve the Pact for the first year, and included more representatives of sectors than originally planned. The steering committee adheres to our steering committee framework, which has been reviewed and updated since Pact launch on 30 January 2020. The final version will be circulated to members.
A call for nominations for steering committee members will be communicated in November 2020, for a term of 2 years running from 01 January 2021 to 31 December 2022.
National Government
We also celebrate commitment on a national strategic level, with the publishing of Extended Producer Responsibility draft notices, including proposed regulations regarding Extended Producer Responsibility and the draft notice of EPR requirements for paper, packaging and some single use products (see Add Your Voice below).
The draft notice for paper, packaging and some single use products also includes recommended annual targets for the recycling of each material stream nationally.
Minister Creecy has committed to implementation of a mandatory EPR scheme by January 2021, which is a key step facilitating progress towards our SA Plastics Pact target of a 70% input recycling rate for plastics packaging in South Africa by 2025.
These are most definitely exciting times, all the best in circular plastics!
