A consortium of beverage and packaging companies has established a new institution to lay the groundworks for Kenya’s first country-wide recycling system. The new Pet Recycling Company of Kenya (Petco) is the brainchild of a cooperation between the local branches of Coca-Cola, Safe Pak and the Highlands Mineral Water Company.

The project foresees a close collaboration between Petco and existing Kenyan recycling company Greenplast International (Nairobi), which recycles post-industrial and post-consumer waste and whose portfolio includes hot washed PET flakes, PVC, LDPE, HDPE and PP resins. According to several news media reports, Petco is to set up bottle collection points throughout the region and then pay USD 350/t to Greenplast for crushing this waste at its recycling plant in Kikuyu Town, on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Several reports indicate that the recycled materials will be exported to China, one of the world’s largest consumer of post-industrial scraps.