South Africa is the first country in Africa to have joined the international The Plastics Pact, and the City of Cape Town is the first municipality in our country to have joined the South African Plastics Pact, which was established last month.

Established by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Plastic Pact brings commercial enterprises, Government bodies, and NGOs together to address plastic waste and pollution in our country. The formation of the Plastic Pact reflects the impact of plastic waste on global warming, and hence on ecosystems internationally, 

The City of Cape Town’s Mayco Member for Water and Waste, Xanthea Limberg, said: ‘The City of Cape Town is delighted to become the first municipality not just in the country, but worldwide to pledge its support. The City’s role, as a supporting member, is to contribute to the development of solutions, amplify anti-plastic messages and cascade best practice. While the City can’t in its own capacity make commitments towards achieving the pact’s targets, it fully supports the initiative and its embedded principles. Goals, however, will not be achieved without collaborative industry action’.

She added: ‘It’s encouraging to see the growing shift towards more sustainable consumer choices globally, with society generally becoming more aware of the environmentally damaging effects of single-use plastics and excessive packaging. The SA Plastics Pact marks an important step closer to seeing greater success in this space locally, and the City is looking forward to playing its part in realising the goals contained in it.’

The South African Plastics Pact wants to change the way plastic products and packaging are designed, used and reused, to reduce plastic from entering the environment. Targets set by the Pact, to be met by 2025, include:

– 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable (in a closed-loop system)

– 70% of plastic packaging effectively recycled

– 30% average post-consumer recycled content across all plastic packaging

The WWF said in a statement: ‘The South African Plastics Pact will be the first African Plastics Pact to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network of national and regional initiatives that bring together businesses, governments and NGOs in a country or region behind the common vision of the New Plastics Economy. The Plastics Pact network is a unique platform to exchange learnings and best practices across the globe, to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastic. By working towards this vision in South Africa, local action taken by The South African Plastics Pact is aligned with the global ambitions of more than 400 signatories of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, who are united behind a common vision of a circular economy for plastic, in which it never becomes waste or pollution’.

The WWF continued:  ‘Following the launch of the South African Plastics Pact in January 2020, WWF, with support from WRAP and strategic input from the Steering Committee, will develop a roadmap to achieve the set of clear and time-bound group 2025 targets. The South African Plastics Pact will identify specific working groups and other activities required to overcome potential obstacles to achieving the targets in a South African context, and progress will be publicly reported upon each year.’

The South African Plastics Pact founding members include:

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide