Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, Midland, Michigan, announced that Project ReflexNG has launched. The pilot program will aim to collect and recycle plastic scrap in Lagos, Nigeria. This is a part of Dow’s global goal to reduce, reuse or recycle 1 million metric tons of plastic by 2030.
This project was made possible through partnerships with Omnik, RecyclePoints and the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre. Through this, water sachets will be recycled to show how they can be collected and reused in new packaging. The goal is to keep about 300 million sachets out of the environment or landfills, while teaching more about sustainability. Right now, it’s estimated that about 19 percent of Nigerians don’t have access to clean drinking water. Water sachets provide a less expensive source of drinking water, especially in urban areas. However, their use has led to more pollution and bad waste disposal. Often, water sachets aren’t included because waste pickers are paid by weight and the sachets are light.
RecyclePoints, a waste management company, will collect the sachets through kiosks. Returning them will have incentives like exchanges for groceries, cash and other needed items. The plan is to expand to include more collection partners later on. After the sachets are collected, Omnik will process it into postconsumer recyclate (PCR) and then work with Dow to determine how the PCR can best be used again. The pilot phase runs to February 2021 and after that Dow will scale up Project ReflexNG to recover even more flexible packaging.
Source: Waste Today Magazine
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