PETCO was established in December 2004 to promote and improve the waste management and recycling of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) products on behalf of all stakeholders in the PET industry in South Africa. Following the success of this year's workshops, more will follow in 2010.
The ‘Green Goal 2010' workshop reviewed what the host cities are putting in place for the 2010 World Cup and how packaging companies and brand owners could be involved in reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts during the event.
Climate change and sustainable development are two of the biggest issues facing society today. It is therefore increasingly important for companies to reduce the environmental impacts of products and services through their whole life cycle. Companies failing to address environmental performance in product design and development will find it increasingly difficult to compete in the global market.
The objectives of this workshop were to encourage plastics packaging designers to have a better understanding of the environmental implications of design decisions thus promoting good environmental practices.
Packaging should be designed to satisfy technical, consumer and customer needs in a way that minimises environmental impact. This means, that amongst other things, packaging should be designed to use the minimum amount of resources for purpose and once it has completed its job, the scope for recovery maximised.
The workshop produced pragmatic answers to many of the immediate questions for designers and specifiers of plastic packaging. PETCO has undertaken to put in place design for recycling guidelines so that PET plastic packaging does not cause recycling issues.
To view the Design for Recycling presentation visit www.petco.co.za.
