On Saturday, 15 September 2018, the World marked World Cleanup Day, a day that marks global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem, including the problem of marine debris. In Kenya, the day was marked alongside the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) which has been held consistently for the past 30 years with the common goal of collecting and documenting the trash littering their coastline.
This year, PETCO Kenya, which is Kenya’s first extended producer responsibility organization (EPR) was a sponsor and collaborating partner in The International Coastal Cleanup and a participant at the World Cleanup Day.
Kenya’s ambitious target at this year’s event was to recycle all the recyclables such as PET bottles, fishing nets, metals, glass etc, which were collected along the Kenya coast. PETCO was able to partner with beach management units, through the Kenya Wildlife Service by donating 1-tonne polypropylene sacks, which will henceforth be used as strategic waste collection points on beaches. The PETCO Kenya, country manager Ms Joyce Gachugi – Waweru, while handing over the sacks reiterated that this partnership with KWS would be ongoing, in an effort to ensure that PET bottles are collected in enclosed sacks, to avoid them being scattered. She also stated that it would be easier for the beach management units to collect more volumes of the PET volumes.
The International Coastal Cleanup is of importance to PETCO as an industry body, as it resonates with its objectives of reducing flows of plastic with a specific focus on PET bottles to oceans and dumpsites.
