Global insight - South Africa sustainable plastic webinar

Overview

In partnership with the British High Consulate Pretoria and the UK Science and Technology Network (STN) in South Africa, the webinar will reflect on insights gathered during a Sustainable Plastics in South Africa Innovate UK Global Expert Mission (GEM) which took place earlier this year in March. This initiative aimed to connect UK businesses with key stakeholders in South Africa to foster innovation and collaboration in sustainable plastics.

Why attend?

Earlier this year a group of seven experts in climate technology, including UK government policy experts, representatives from research institutions, and leading businesses in the Sustainable Plastics ecosystem, travelled to South Africa in order to gain critical insights and recommendations for future activities.

The GEM brought together industry experts from the UK and South Africa to examine mutual challenges and opportunities for collaboration in this rapidly developing sector.

This dissemination webinar will present the findings of the GEM and will be delivered by the mission delegates.

The full mission objectives were as follows:

• Help determine how Innovate UK can best support UK businesses in considering sustainable plastics innovation partnerships with South Africa.
• Review key enabling technologies to support the UK’s plastics recycling industries by focusing on chemical and mechanical recycling, reuse and refill, compliance and data management.
• Provide insights into where there are synergies in policy and strategy between the two countries to determine whether there is an appetite for further collaboration in plastic packaging sustainability, mainly related to packaging data and software tools, infrastructure and recyclability by design.
• Enable UK companies to better understand the South African market and key stakeholders in plastic packaging sustainability by providing UK businesses with access to material packaging and product manufacturers/packer fillers as well as brands/retailers, waste and/or recyclers/reprocessors, local authorities (or government departments who are responsible for dealing with waste), compliance schemes (or their equivalent) and local software providers (if they exist).
• Identify challenges and opportunities for developing innovative technologies, products and services when considering collaboration on sustainability with the South African plastic packaging sector.
• Develop strategies for long-term engagement for new technologies, products and services.

Why South Africa?

South Africa is becoming a key player in sustainable plastics innovation due to its unique combination of environmental necessity, supportive policies, and entrepreneurial spirit. Moreover, the South African Plastics Pact serves as a robust platform uniting more than 50 organisations, including major companies such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Woolworths, to promote a circular economy for plastic packaging.

The event is essential for stakeholders in the Sustainable Plastics industry, specifically in the themes of:

• Upstream innovation
  Rethinks products and services at the design stage to design out packaging waste. For example: Flexible film packs (including small formats), reusable packaging and refill business models.
• Downstream innovation
  Affects a product or material after its first use. For example: Flexible film packs, including small formats, Collecting, cleaning, decontaminating, sorting, separating and End Market Development.