WeeklySA_AdminWORST:South Africa is the worst plastic polluter in the World
By Thuli Zungu
The CMO of PepsiCo Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Martin Neethling has called on all corporates to take action as they came to grips with the reality brought about by global environmental challenges.
He was speaking at a recent round table session which was chaired by Craig Foster, founder of the Sea Change Project and Director of the Academy Award Winning documentary, My Octopus Teacher.
Neethling said the community found itself facing massive levels of disruption both in our personal and professional lives. “It is not only humans facing this disruption, but the environment is also experiencing increased pressures from climate change and pollution, often with devastating consequences,” Neethling said.
He said plastic waste has been identified as one of the biggest culprits of marine pol- lution, with various local and international organisations calling on citizens and corpo- rates to do more to reduce plastic pollution.”
Neethling said as a signatory of the legislation and a driving force for its imple- mentation, Ceres was fully committed to sustainability and agreed that more needs to be done within the realm of business to address the pollution issue.
‘’There is a need for us to move faster. This was a major driver behind our deci- sion to change from plastic straws to paper straws.” he said. “We are all aware that the pollution of our oceans is a contributor to climate change, a challenge which has been described as the greatest of our generation.
Corporates need to stand up and make a change. We cannot wait for tomorrow.
“A major challenge with plastic straws is that they are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter and therefore difficult to recycle. Hence Ceres’ introduction of eco-friendly straws for our 200ml juice packs.”
He said everybody had to put all their support and funding behind recycling initia- tives where everyone can make a massive change. Plastic waste management was a growing concern globally and plastic drinking straws have been identified as a major contributor to this problem, according to Neethling. Foster said South Africa was the 11th worst plastic polluters in the world in terms of plastic pollution in the ocean. He said it was not only marine life that was affected. Studies have shown that microplastics have also been found in our drinking water and food.
Paul Moloi, Marketing Manager of Ceres said this was a massive problem and wondered about the future generation and how their lives would be like. “I need to take little steps every day to ensure the sustain- ability of the youth’s future,” he said. Aaniyah Omardien, founder of the Beach Co-op Organisation, said for a long time, they have been encouraging the local community in Cape Town to come out in their numbers and participate in beach clean-ups. “In some cases, we can track the plastic and see where it comes from’’.
