POLYCO gives a much needed “hands-up” to worthy collectors

 

Cape Town – POLYCO, the Polyolefin Recycling Company (NPC), has announced the names of the 12 collectors of post-consumer polyolefin waste that will be receiving a total of R4.6million in grants and interest-free loans.

As part of POLYCO’s mandate to promote and grow the collection and recycling of post-consumer PP, HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE packaging materials, as is required in terms of the Packaging Industry obligations to the South African Government under extended producer responsibility, the company issued a call for proposals in April 2015 to collectors who were interested in partnering with them.

“We received a total of 38 applicants from all over South Africa, of which 16 were shortlisted and finally 12 successful applicants were approved by the POLYCO board,” says Mandy Naudé, CEO of POLYCO. The result is that POLYCO will invest R3.7 million as interest-free loans and R850 000 as grants into 12 post-consumer polyolefin collection companies.

 

The successful applicants are :

1 – A2 Recycling in Kagiso
2 – Anti-Waste in Polokwane
3 – Aspigon 218cc in Lenasia
4 – Innovative Mouldings in Port Elizabeth
5 – Mary Recycling Works in Meadowlands
6 – Mavesa Scrap Metals in Germiston
7 – Neo Recycling in Thabazimbi
8 – Nondaba Recycling in Secunda
9 – Polymer Waste Management Centre in Longdale, Gauteng
10 – Pick Up Waste Recycling in Potchefstroom
11 – Remade in Germiston
12 – Trashback Pty Ltd in Sandton

“Providing funding support to these companies and helping them to optimize their supply chains, allows us to unlock approximately 27 500 tonnes of new polyolefin plastics for recycling over the next three years – putting us ahead of our 5 year plan”, Mandy says.

The collection and sorting sector faces numerous constraints which prevent them from growing their volumes or collecting more materials. The majority of the collectors who had applied to POLYCO for funding in this cycle, required new machinery and equipment that would allow them to make maximum use of their available space and move materials more effectively through the process, whilst minimizing their logistic costs.

“Almost all of the collectors needed bailers at their premises in order to compact the bulky polyolefin materials that were brought in, such as milk bottles, yoghurt tubs, margarine containers and ice cream tubs. Granulators to shred the materials into smaller pieces were also high on the collectors’ wish lists, as both these machines allow them to save on warehousing and logistical costs. By helping them find solutions to the bottle necks in their operations, they will now be able to buy and process more materials from the informal collectors and have a direct, positive impact on the amount of plastic waste that is sent to landfill,” she explains.

Upon hearing the good news that their applications were successful, this is what some of the applicants had to say:

“I feel very excited about what this grant will mean for my business. I started out as a waste collector myself picking up plastics from landfills. Today, I employ 14 staff members and POLYCO’s funding will help me grow my operations and provide jobs to many people in our area who do not have an income. Together, we will be able to collect waste from more of the landfills around Germiston”. – Jabu from Mavesa Scrap Metals

 

“POLYCO’s funding means a lot to me and is going to help me grow my business, as I will now be able to increase the volumes of the materials I collect and employ more people. I am going to buy a new granulator. In time and as my business grows, I will also be buying a wash plant, and have my eye on a truck that I want to buy to help me speed up collections and deliveries.” –  Bongani Mashinini from Aspigon 218cc

 

“We are very excited about the opportunity for the interest-free loan received, and what it will mean for our business. We have built up Anti-Waste to become a well-established and reliable recycling company over the past 22 years. Anti-Waste has already created 362 permanent jobs and 104 self-sustainable jobs, and this funding will allow us to create even more jobs in the Limpopo Province. Thanks to POLYCO’s vote of confidence in our operations, we will now be able to invest in purchasing a granulator and a baling machine that will allow us to streamline and grow our operations in the Limpopo province”. – Fanus Beytell from Anti-Waste, Polokwane

 

“We are very blessed and thankful to POLYCO for the trust they have shown in us and our company. With this money, we will be able to purchase a large baling machine which will aid with storing our collected plastic waste thereby allowing us to buy in more material. We will also be building collection bins for a special project that we have in the pipeline”. –  Johan and Crizaan Jacobs, Innovative Mouldings

 

“I became unemployed after being retrenched. With nowhere else to turn, I teamed up with five other people and together we starting buying up bulk plastic materials which were collected from waste pickers at the dumping sites. Today, we have grown our business to the place where own our own trucks and collect materials from Secunda.Leslie, Kinross, Kriel, Bethal, Morgenzon, Amersfoort and Davel. POLYCO’s funding support will help us to grow our operations even further by being able to minimize our logistic costs by granulating the material before transport. This means we can now collect materials from further away, buy more equipment and employ more people in rural areas where employment opportunities as scarce”. – Morris Sibaya from Nondaba Recycling

 

“I never thought that I could get so excited about rubbish! The decision by POLYCO to grant us funding is a real highlight for us. We have mapped out a growth plan and can now suddenly envisage a whole new scenario for our future, We cannot do this on our own and need partners such as POLYCO. The grant will be spent on granulators, trailers and balers thereby building capacity in Westdene and Rosslyn, to help us roll out our vision. – Steven Levitt from Polymer Waste Management Centre

 

POLYCO’s third call for proposals in 2015 has gone out on the 17th of August and is focused specifically on supply chain efficiency projects for mechanical recyclers. The final submission date for these proposals is the 28th September 2015.

“We look forward to going through the applications from mechanical recyclers and announcing the names of the successful applicants later this year. These applicants also enjoy the benefit of becoming part of the POLYCO network whereby they are referred business opportunities, connected to valuable networks, provided with media exposure and offered general business support and advice if required. We have set ourselves the goal of growing polyolefin recycling in South Africa by a further 300 000 tonnes over the next 5 years. We believe it is achievable through forming partnerships with recyclers and collectors who share our vision and passion for the industry,” Mandy concludes.