Recycling in South Africa is still a habit which requires impetus in South Africa. Most South Africans are not yet in the habit of regularly recycling, and the facts don’t lie: 95% of the population does not actively engage in recycling. Polyco is a non-profit organisation who, through their impressive initiative Packa-ching, endeavours to increase recycling rates through educating and employing people from low income communities.

Packa-ching was launched in 2017 and incentivises individuals to collect recyclable packaging material by exchanging “trash for cash”. This project aims to divert packaging material from landfills through recycling and in doing so, it opens up new sources of packaging waste, which facilitates the growth of mechanical recycling.

Most of the waste that ends up in landfills is recyclable packaging, meaning it has monetary value. Packa-ching incentivises the collection of packaging in the hopes that it will begin to change South Africans’ behaviour toward the environment while at the same time improving the lives of many unemployed people. Individuals may bring in recyclable packaging waste to be exchanged for money that is loaded onto an eWallet account, making the transaction safe and easy.

As a result, the Packa-ching project is not only cleaning up the environment from packaging pollution – it is also contributing to job creation in South Africa and giving people the chance to earn a much-needed income. Packa-ching especially concentrates on alleviating poverty in low income communities, thereby uplifting South African households.

Berry Astrapak is a founding member of Polyco and contributes a levy per tonne of raw material purchased for recycling initiatives. We proudly support Polyco’s Packa-ching initiative in an effort to help decrease the packaging industry’s carbon footprint, whilst aiding to increase recycling rates in South Africa.

Packa-ching incentivises “trash for cash”