New submission deadline is Friday, 16 May 2014

 

Cape Town – Due to the disruption caused by the recent public holidays and in response to the numerous requests it has received, POLYCO has announced that it will be extending the submission deadline to apply for support funding for separation, collection and sorting of post-consumer polyolefin plastic packaging projects until Friday, the 16th of May 2014.

“The demand for post-consumer polyolefin recyclate in South Africa requires sustainable and growing collection volumes. In order to achieve this, we are giving companies who are involved in the separation, collection and sorting of post-consumer PP, HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE packaging materials, the opportunity to partner with POLYCO to assist in growing these volumes,” explains POLYCO Chief Executive Officer, Many Naude.

POLYCO was established by the South African Polyolefin Plastic Packaging Converters with the primary aim of promoting the recycling of polyolefin plastics (i.e. plastics bearing the polymer identification codes 2, 4 and 5) throughout South Africa.

“We have set ourselves the target of sending zero plastics packaging waste to landfill by 2030. We realize that this is an ambitious target, but we believe it can be achieved if we form the necessary partnerships and support infrastructure for our waste collectors, recyclers and waste to energy organisations,” Naude says.

POLYCO’s first “Request for Proposals” has gone out several weeks ago to companies or individuals needing funding or financial project support in each focus area of the recycling industry value chain, starting with the currently constrained Collection and Sorting sector. However, due to the numerous public holidays in April and in response to several requests by applicants for an extension of the first deadline, POLYCO has agreed to move the submission deadline to Friday, 16 May 2014.
The first call for proposals for funding covers the following three distinct categories:

  1. Strategic Growth and Development Projects
    These are large-scale projects aimed at substantially increasing separation-at-source, collection and sorting of post-consumer polyolefin plastics. These include:

    • The installation of new collection and sorting infrastructure and equipment
    • The increased utilisation and upgrade of existing collection and sorting infrastructure and equipment.
    • Support for the implementation of new separation-at-source programmes, or the support of existing initiatives.

 

  1. Supply Chain Efficiency Projects
    These are smaller projects aimed at contributing to the growth of sustainable, ongoing collection and sorting of polyolefin plastics. These include:

    • Support to purchase minor equipment to overcome current supply chain constraints
    • The scoping of new sources of separated and sorted collection and supply to the recycling industry

 

  1. Visible Consumer Collection Projects
    These are small projects aimed at increasing the visibility of POLYCO support in the waste collection and recycling industry. These include:

    • Providing support to community-based projects to grow separated collection volumes
    • Co-branding opportunities with waste collectors

 

Concludes Naude: “Funding will be made available to qualifying companies who best meet the Project Funding Support Criteria.   All the necessary information and application guidelines are available on the POLYCO website (www.polyco.co.za). We look forward to seeing good quality and quantity proposals to continue building on establishing the POLYCO brand in the South African Waste Management Industry. We are expecting to announce the names of the successul Polyco Project partners around July this year, after which we will be calling for our next Request for proposals, focused on the Recycling sector of the industry.”