US chemicals and materials giant Dow (Midland, Michigan; www.dow.com) has announced the extension of its partnership with Kenyan recycling company Mr. Green Africa (Nairobi; www.mrgreenafrica.com) to further tackle plastics waste in the African country and advance a circular economy for plastics on the continent. Dow first began working with Mr. Green Africa in 2019 to raise awareness about plastics waste and to invest in recycling initiatives and waste disposal solutions in Kenya. Approximately 30 t of hard-to-recycle flexible plastics waste is currently processed every two months through the waste stream established by the companies.

The second phase of the collaboration seeks to incentivise waste pickers with a higher and stable income, establish sorting centers for collected plastics waste, and enable processing of the waste in recycling centers. Dow also developed an app being deployed locally by Mr. Green Africa that allows consumers to sort plastics waste in their homes prior to collection. The partners also hope to form a business that creates new packaging from the recycled flexible packaging and can find innovative end uses for unrecyclable waste that is collected.

In December 2020, Dow also collaborated with Packaging Industries Limited (PIL, Nairobi / Kenya; www.pil.co.ke) to produce “Mama” silage bags, with a multilayer film structure containing Dow’s “Elite” polyethylene resins and “Innate” packaging resins. The bags, designed to improve silage storage and reduce waste, enable longer shelf-storage and allow multiple reuses.