Recently, an NPO that provides care for abused, abandoned, and neglected children in Delft near Cape Town, launched an interesting new initiative – a waste management project designed to clean up and offer hope beyond its own four walls.

Petco was right there alongside them, showing how collecting and recycling can turn everyday waste into opportunity. This workshop reached 72 locals eager to get involved in the growing recycling sector. That is good news for the community and good news for the emerging circular economy.

Elsewhere in the Western Cape, we visited a buy-back centre in Plettenberg Bay where the local recycling infrastructure is growing rapidly thanks to municipal partnerships and entrepreneur-led expansion.

In Delft, the community workshop formed part of a growing partnership between Petco and the local NPO to help raise awareness, share practical recycling tips, and empower people already collecting recyclable packaging to grow their efforts and impact. With backing from the City of Cape Town, the event showed how hands-on support can unlock new possibilities for local recycling efforts.

In Plettenberg Bay, momentum is building at a local buy-back centre that has become a key driver of community-led recycling. Thanks to strong local leadership and collaboration with the Bitou Municipality, the team is now growing its reach, setting up new sites in KwaNokuthula, New Horizons, Kurdlands, and Kranshoek. Each recycling facility in these areas will be run by a local entrepreneur.

During a recent visit, Petco donated baler bags and explored further support in the form of weighing scales.

We are also planning to promote liquid board packaging collection at the new sites to boost collection and raise awareness. (Liquid board packaging, as you know, means those multi-layered cartons in which long-life milk, custard and fruit juice are sold.)

These community-led efforts are proof that, with the right partners, recycling can create lasting value for both people and the planet.