Every time you go shopping you can contribute to sustainable community projects, support animal welfare initiatives and environmentally friendly farming practices – or even help save the rhinos – without setting foot out of the Central City. The trick is to know what to buy and why.
What are retailers doing to help your next grocery shop be low on environmental impact and high on social upliftment? Here are two ways in which Woolworths and Pick n Pay are reducing our reliance on plastic.
In the bag: Creating employment and helping the environment
Big retailers are inviting consumers to support vital conservation projects and biodiversity initiatives – by buying fabric bags and reducing their reliance on plastic ones. According to Woolworths’ Good Business Journey report: “Customers proved in a big way that they are not prepared to settle for the Big 4 and some 60 000 rhino bags have been sold so far, amounting to a donation of R600 000. These funds are being used to ensure that much-needed anti-poaching equipment and support can be secured for rangers across the region. What’s more, in purchasing these bags, customers are also supporting a small Cape Town BEE company called Isikhwama and helping to reduce the amount of plastic waste that goes to landfill. Isikhwama, which employs semi-skilled and unskilled people who were previously out of work, is one of the small enterprises benefiting from partnership with Woolies”. Isikhwama, based in Maitland, produces 20 000 to 30 000 bags for Woolworths weekly.
Be sure to look out for bags in support of conservation efforts to increase the alarmingly low numbers of African wild dogs, as well as those in support of the Biodiversity Wine Initiative (BWI), or the Fishing for the Future bags – a sustainable seafood initiative along with SASSI (the WWF programme for sustainable seafood).
Pick n Pay is launching new bag, also in conjunction with WWF’s sustainable fisheries programme and in support of their aim to restore over-exploited fish stocks to sustainably managed levels. Pick n Pay aims to contribute R6.1 million to the project over three years. They have also made the commitment to stock only sustainably sourced seafood products by the end of 2015. The Make Plastic Bags Extinct campaign was launched in 2008 and their newest eco-friendly bags are designed and manufactured by Township, a Fair Trade-accredited and Cape Town-based supplier, through co-operatives in Khayelitsha, Manenberg and Westlake. The project has so far generated employment for more than 70 previously disadvantaged women.
And remember the first Pick n Pay green bag? For every bag sold, R1 goes to a special environmental fund, known as Kids in Parks. Thanks to awareness initiative, 30 000 children have visited South Africa’s National Parks and have learned about better conserving the world around them.
If it’s got to be plastic, make sure it's PET
Plastic containers are graded from one to seven according to how recyclable they are – and PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a resilient material that lends itself to recycling, is a grade one plastic. Pick n Pay was the first retailer to launch fully recyclable PET wine bottles that reduce greenhouse emissions by 55%. The reduced bottle weight and diameter allows for up to 36% more product to be transported in the same container space, yet it holds the same amount of wine.
Woolworths is the first major South African retailer to use post-consumer recycled plastic in foods packaging: their ready-to-eat meal containers are made with 30% rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate). According to Woolworths: “The recycled PET is totally safe for food packaging and is scrupulously super cleaned to make sure it meets or exceeds international standards for food safety. Recycling one ton of PET bottles not only saves 6.2 cubic metres of landfill space, it also saves enough energy to keep a 15-energy saver light glowing for 24 hours. Woolworths first began using rPET fibre several years ago for the filling in duvets and pillows. It also helps create jobs – it’s estimated that some 10 000 people earn income from collecting bottles.”
So the next time you go shopping, buy a bag and check the bottom of any plastic container – is it PET?
Pick n Pay: 58 Strand Street | www.picknpay.co.za | 021 418 1118
Woolworths: 34 Adderley Street | www.woolworths.co.za, 021 481 7111