International Coastal and River Clean-up day is a call on us to work together towards a World Without Waste

16 Sep 2022, Nairobi- Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Kenya joins the world in celebrating International Coastal and River clean-up day. As we mark this day, it is clear that we must work together across the public and private sectors, as well as civil society, to make sustainable decisions to protect our beach and river ecosystems for our future generations.

The global issue of packaging waste features high on the list of priorities. While food and beverage packaging are an important part of our modern lives, the world has a packaging problem, which we as Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), together with The Coca-Cola Company, have a responsibility to help solve.

To address this challenge, our commitment is to continuously invest in our planet and our packaging to make the world’s packaging problem a thing of the past, working in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company which launched a sustainable packaging initiative dubbed ‘World Without Waste’ in 2018.

John Mwendwa, Director Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability at CCBA-Kenya, says CCBA is committed to doing business the right way and replenishing Africa every day through responsible and sustainable processes in the entire value chain.

“In everything we do, we are committed to doing it the right way. We’re reimagining our packaging to make it better for our planet and our business,” said Mwendwa.

Following the launch of the initiative in 2018, CCBA-Kenya has made great strides in ensuring that the business is doing its part to help address the global problem of packaging waste.

In 2021, CCBA-Kenya unveiled a new iconic look of its leading sparkling soft drink Sprite. The lemon- lime flavoured Sprite plastic bottle transitioned from green to clear. This shift meant that more Sprite bottles could be collected, easily recycled and reused to make new items.

“With the clear PET plastic, Sprite bottles have a higher chance of being collected, recycled and reused, thus creating a circular solution for plastic. It being 100% recyclable and re-usable will help create a healthy, debris-free environment,” said Mwendwa.

“We’re also partnering with communities in Nairobi, Kisumu and Nyeri and industry to lead the drive for a World Without Waste. We are working to bring people together to help us collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one we sell,” added Mwendwa

We believe that it takes partnerships to create lasting solutions in the areas where the need is greatest, to help make a significant impact, additionally creating awareness and influencing waste disposal behavior change across the country.

A key milestone is the partnership with other industry players and key stakeholders in the country, which saw the formation of the first Producer Responsibility Organization (PETCO) in Kenya. Through the support of PETCO Kenya, over 30,000 tons of post - consumer PET plastic bottles have been collected, sorted and recycled in Kenya between January 2019 and end of August 2022. Plastic bottles that would have otherwise ended up in oceans, beaches or rivers. Currently, our recycling rate stands at 105% having recycled 6920 tons by end of August in 2022. The recycling rate is a proportion of our PET sales volumes and our target as a business is to achieve a recycling rate of above 92%.

We have also locked partnerships with residential areas including Elijah Owino residential in Kisumu, Nyayo and Air View Estates in Nairobi and Ndegwa Gatheru in Nyeri, hotels, malls and restaurants where we have been able to create awareness on proper waste disposal as well as created livelihoods for women and youth in the communities through trainings, linkage to recyclers for ready markets of collected plastic bottles, and provision of PET plastic collection tools.

“A more sustainable, more inclusive Africa, free of waste, is possible if we work together in collaboration for the common good of our continent.” concluded Mwendwa.

ENDS