Ardagh Glass Packaging-South Africa‘s money4glass initiative in South Africa, launched in 2023, continues to show tangible results at its one-year milestone.
Aimed at revolutionising glass recycling, the programme continues to show tangible results, representing a significant stride towards meeting South Africa’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements and towards achieving a truly circular economy in the country.
With the intention of driving growth in glass recycling and empowering recyclers, money4glass appeals to three levels of participants:
- Level 1 glass recyclers who typically handle more than 10 tonnes per month.
- Level 2 glass recyclers who recycle smaller loads and sell to level 1 operators.
- Level 3 are typically informal traders who contribute to the recycling chain.
This tiered approach ensures inclusivity across the recycling spectrum, from large-scale operators to individual collectors, encouraging a comprehensive ecosystem for glass recycling in South Africa.
During the year (August 2023 to July 2024), the company’s glass recycling depot at its Clayville facility in Gauteng received cullet tonnage close to 303,000. Of this, 131,000 tonnes (around 43 percent) were transacted on money4glass. In the Western Cape, at the company’s Bellville facility, total cullet tonnage received was 57,000, with 17,000 tonnes (around 30 percent) transacted on the digital platform.
In 2021, the South African government enacted the EPR legislation, which is a producer-focused mechanism that aims to reduce waste by ensuring that producers of products take responsibility for the entire life-cycle of their products and packaging. The intention is to increase recycling, thus decreasing dependency on new raw materials, and to ensure the effective and efficient management of end-of-life products. The BanQu digital technology used by the money4glass programme assists Ardagh to collate data that can be used for EPR Plan audits, while at the same time reducing the ever-present risk of fraud, driving both recycling and transformation in the glass recycling industry.