Heading into the final stages of a busy 2024, the Petco team took time to reflect on the work done under their portfolios and all that was achieved on behalf of our members in 2024.
What is evident is that Petco’s holistic approach to leading producer responsibility is delivering results. We are working in so many, diverse ways to support and strengthen the collection and recycling value chain.
But we couldn’t do it without key collaborations. Working together with our members, corporate and municipal partners has extended our reach and amplified our efforts countrywide. And we thank everyone who has played a role in this regard – there are just too many to mention!
With two decades of PRO experience, we know what interventions are proven to work, but we also never stop learning and trying innovative ways to get South Africa collecting and recycling.
We hope you’ll be encouraged by the progress made in our third year of mandatory EPR, especially with regards to our new liquid board packaging scheme, and that you’ll stay with us for the next leg of our journey in 2025!
Petco’s stakeholder relations manager, Junaid Francis, looks back on our engagement with members – through consistent updates, information-sharing initiatives, and sustainable packaging collaborations – to help them meet their EPR obligations.
A priority for Petco in this third year of mandatory EPR was supporting our members in their EPR journeys.
Transparency is essential in this process as we pressed on with our dedicated member engagement programme to consistently share with members progress on Petco activities and how their EPR fees are being utilised.
This programme included information sessions, webinars, in-person meetings, as well as site visits in Cape Town and Johannesburg where members were given first-hand exposure to some of the challenges encountered by stakeholders in the post-consumer packaging collection and recycling value chain.
We further collaborated with our members on initiatives aimed at creating awareness about recycling and responsible waste management among their staff.
Accordingly, we participated in and supported clean-ups hosted by PepsiCo SA, Polyoak Packaging, Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages, and The Beverage Company. We also held internal staff information sharing sessions with Woolworths as part of their Good Business Journey sustainability week and Suntory Beverage & Food SA during their Green Week initiative.
Facilitating better packaging design practices is another ongoing priority, and despite the many challenges that still remain, we are pleased with the progress made on this front. Happy Culture Kombucha introduced 15% recycled material into its beverage packaging and Diageo upped their recycled content to 50% for their Gordon’s 200ml bottle, while Woolworths accelerated the recyclability of its product lines by extending the use of recyclable polyolefin shrink sleeves beyond their iced tea range to items like mayonnaises and milkshakes.
Currently, Petco supports 27 members to meet their EPR obligations and corporate targets. These members comprise brand owners, retailers, and a minor cohort of converters and co-packers.
Samu Mkhize, our general manager of collections and recycling, considers the milestones Petco achieved with our liquid board packaging (LBP) scheme, noting how we've enhanced recycling rates through community involvement, educational initiatives, and strategic partnerships — all aimed at promoting sustainable practices.
In 2024, we made great progress in unlocking LBP collections and boosting its recycling rates.
Here are a few initiatives that helped Petco achieve this:
Overall, 2024 has been a significant year for building a sustainable value chain for post-consumer LBP. Petco’s ongoing commitment to improving its collection and recycling is yielding mostly positive results, laying a strong foundation for future efforts.
Petco’s regional recycling manager, Tlou Sebola, gives an update on our expanded recycling efforts across multiple provinces, offering training that connects waste pickers to resources and income opportunities. By partnering with municipalities, Petco also helped advance recycling infrastructure for collection, provided equipment support, and improved waste picker working conditions.
To further expand Petco’s reach, in 2024 we conducted two accredited business training sessions, hosted 39 recycling workshops across seven provinces, and trained more than 3500 attendees.
Some of our central objectives were to introduce waste pickers to LBP, inform them about sorting best practices, and highlight the networking and income opportunities available to them. To encourage improvements in the quality and quantity of collections, we also placed a special emphasis on ensuring that clean recyclables are collected and sent for recycling.
Throughout the year, we continued our drive to strengthen public-private partnerships by working closely with all spheres of government.
As a result, we promoted separation-at-source projects and raised awareness through workshops and training for municipal officials, SMMEs, cooperatives, and waste pickers.
We also encouraged the implementation of waste picker projects with the aim of diverting waste from landfills, growing kerbside collections, and increasing the availability of infrastructure for collection, sorting and storage.
To this end, we engaged and partnered with 35 municipalities across eight provinces, including five metros, three districts, and 27 local municipalities, as well as provincial and national departments.
Collaborating with corporate partners, as much as R6 million was injected to support 53 collection projects across nine provinces – with essential recycling equipment such as balers, trailers, containers, cages, scales and branded signage. Initiatives such as these have a direct impact on improving recycling practices and advancing the development of sustainable businesses across the country.
Guided by the waste picker integration guideline, we supported various waste picker projects through workshops, accredited business training, as well as infrastructure and equipment support – in the form of 30 trolleys, 1 255 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE), over 15 000 bulk bags, as well as sorting shelters and ablution facilities. Such support is essential to empowering waste pickers and improving their working conditions by ensuring their safety, dignity, and visibility.
On the ground, Petco also absorbed two regional recycling officers overseeing dedicated provinces, while working with municipalities and collectors to advance the collection of recyclable packaging.
Boipelo Madonsela, Petco’s recycling value chain analyst, unpacks the role of our recycling partners in helping us achieve our goals, the effective deployment of our EPR scheme for LBP, and the new certification mark for recyclable PET containers.
Despite facing challenging market dynamics in 2024, our recycling partners continued to work tirelessly to assist Petco in its efforts to reach our annual collection, recycling, and recycled content targets.
Likewise, we remain committed to supporting our recycling partners and sustaining the collection and recycling value chain on behalf of our members.
We achieved a major milestone in our second year of administering an EPR scheme for LBP by consistently meeting and exceeding collection targets.
We are also excited to announce the development of a product certification mark for PET bottles and jars with polyolefin shrink sleeves, signalling their readiness for collection and recycling. This progress was made possible by our key partners who participated in a working group focused on the rollout of these sleeves. Now we are looking forward to welcoming more brand owners who have transitioned to shrink sleeves into the certification scheme.
Our marketing manager, Kara Levy, reflects on a very busy year, highlighting Petco’s range of support, education, and awareness initiatives, as well as how collaboration with key organisations strengthened our commitment to promoting effective recycling and supporting the circular economy.
For Petco, this year saw a blend of tried and tested practices and fresh approaches.
In May, we launched a WhatsApp channel to drive ongoing engagement with our community members. The platform is helping users stay up to date with the latest Petco news and upcoming events, while offering tips on how to effectively recycle PET and LBP.
We consistently published our monthly newsletters to spotlight the Petco team’s on-ground efforts, share practical tips on how to start collecting recyclable packaging, and provide the latest insights from the industry. This effort underscores our commitment as a leading producer responsibility organisation (PRO) in South Africa.
Furthermore, we continued to develop our partnership with the Pick n Pay School Club, reaching 500 schools across the country by providing free resources for grades 8 and 9, focusing on separating packaging from waste and the importance of environmental sustainability and consciousness. (Download these workbooks and posters here.)
We also adopted a fresh approach to boost awareness around collecting recyclable packaging, which included the launch of a docuseries alongside a mall activation.
Titled Unpack, this online docuseries which features short, easy-to-digest episodes is all set to debunk recycling myths by focusing on the basics of packaging for South African consumers – from labelling, to collection, to recycling. Since its September launch, the series already boasts close to 1 million views.
Launched during SA's Clean-up and Recycle Week (September 16-21), Petco’s “Find Your Reason to Recycle” campaign featured interactive public areas in Cape Town and Johannesburg, where collection and recycling sector representatives engaged the public in an interactive game which delved into, and rewarded, participants’ various reasons for recycling.
As part of the campaign, custom-built units with interactive screens were set up in prominent malls in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and manned by recycling and collection sector representatives. Ultimately, thousands of consumers found their reason to recycle, while receiving practical tips on separating recyclable packaging from general waste at home.
During the course of 2024, we also partnered with key players in SA's waste management sector.
One of the many highlights was joining Zoë Prinsloo in her Coast2Coast beach clean-up initiative. This six-week coastal effort placed renewed emphasis on the issue of waste on our beaches.
Other highlights include:
Taking all this into account, Petco remains deeply committed to raising awareness and fostering effective recycling behaviour, thereby helping to sustain and enhance the circular economy.
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