Polyco’s Packa-Ching community recycling initiative has paid out more than R50-million to South African communities, and diverted more than 41-million kilogrammes of waste from landfills.

Packa-Ching managed this through mobile and static buy-back centres in underserved communities where there is no recycling infrastructure.

In these communities, predominantly serviced by waste pickers, sorted recyclable waste (plastics, paper, cans and glass) can be handed in in exchange for cash vouchers which can be used at a range of local stores.

To date, a total of 48 Packa-Ching buy-back centres having been opened across South Africa, with the support of partners such as Sasol and Shoprite. 

The programme this year introduced ten new six-metre Packa-Ching units across various provinces, each operated by a trained local enterprise.

This model creates jobs, builds local capability, and ensures long-term community ownership of recycling infrastructure, says Polyco.

Polyco has also developed a WeighPay app to facilitate secure and transparent transactions, while capturing real-time data to support South Africa’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) system.

Polyco is a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) under South Africa’s EPR regulations.

South Africa's EPR regulations, enacted under the National Environmental Management: Waste Act make producers responsible for the post-consumer stage of their products, including paper and packaging, electronics, batteries and lighting.

Producers must either establish their own EPR scheme or join an existing one – a PRO – to fund and manage the collection, recycling and disposal of their products.

Polyco recently recognised its top-performing recycling enterprises at a gala evening held in Cape Town.

The gala dinner celebrated five enterprises for their outstanding contributions over the past year, recognising their efforts in plastics recovery, community impact, enterprise leadership and developing partnerships with waste pickers, who are described as critical to the success of the Packa-Ching initiative.

All award nominees were required to submit their collection data through the WeighPay app, which determined the winner in each category.

Categories included the Top Plastics Collector Award, Community Impact Award, Largest Recycling Collection – Women-led Enterprise, and Largest Recycling Collection – Youth-led Enterprise.

“It’s important that we celebrate the efforts of all our Packa-Ching enterprises,” says Polyco CEO Patricia Pillay.

“They have been at the heart of a movement to empower communities to champion waste management.

“We would like to congratulate the winners for championing the creation of a green, inclusive circular economy and having a profound impact on their communities.”