Joyce Gachugi, country program manager for PETCO, said the baling innovation will seek to boost efforts to manage waste properly by increasing capacity for PET collectors across the country.
‘The bailers will further compact the bottles of PET waste into manageable bulks, making them easier to handle and transport,’ said Gachugi.
PETCO, which has a factory in Athi River, about 40 km east of Nairobi, also ordered more baler machines from China to further boost the innovative solutions of baling post-consumer PET plastics, according to Gachugi.
‘We’ve placed an order from China to complement those we already have and we’re expecting delivery in August of this year for the first batch,’ she said in Athi River.
Gachugi spoke in Nairobi when the recycler signed a partnership agreement with Karsam, a PET bottle collector company based in Industrial Area.
Karsam’s director Denis Gacau said that by setting up collection centers in counties, the firm will provide job opportunities for local youth.
‘We plan to set up two collection centers in each county to collect an average of 200 tons of PET bottles each month, creating job opportunities for the youth as well as providing a solution to the challenge posed by post-consumer PET bottle’, he said.
John Waithaka, Chairman of PETCO Kenya, said the company looked forward to partnering with other recyclers and similar organizations to achieve the goal of making all plastics recyclable by 2030 and reducing single-use plastics to promote recycled plastic micro-plastics.
“PETCO will provide a price subsidy of 5 shillings (about 0.05 U.S. dollars) per kilogram of PET bottles collected and recycled by Karsam and we shall also be extending the same in levies and grants to upcoming collectors, this is an incentive to bring more partners into the business,” said the chairman.
