The PepsiCo Foundation’s US$2M grant to Ciudad Saludable will support recyclers and their organizations to become part of the recycling system within the country.
As part of PepsiCo’s goal for
plastics to never become waste, PepsiCo Latin America has been working for
the last decade to foster inclusive recycling in the region. Earlier this year,
the company launched “Recycling with Purpose,” a circular economy model
for Latin
America
based on consumer involvement and education, inclusive recycling and
strengthening of local recycling industries. Today, Peru becomes the first
country to implement the program.
“PepsiCo wants to be part of the solution and will work continuously to build a
world where the plastics never become waste. For the past 10 years, we have been
actively involved in the recycling arena in Latin America, and Recycling with
Purpose incorporates the learnings acquired in this journey.” said Luis
Montoya, President of PepsiCo Latin America Beverages. “Nevertheless, we
acknowledge that we can’t close the loop alone — and beyond the improvements we
are making to our own food and beverage packaging, it is imperative that we
engage the consumer to increase material collection and boost recycling rates
through the inclusion of grassroots recyclers with Ciudad Saludable.”
The first component of the Recycling with Purpose platform is an innovative
consumer engagement program, with the potential to scale for the region. Through
a partnership
with ecoins
— an initiative founded in Costa Rica that aims to increase the collection
of PET materials in exchange for ecoins, a virtual currency — consumers in Peru
can now earn discounts on a variety of products and services, in exchange for
the collection of recyclable materials, including PET. The ecoins partnership
aims to reach 1 million people with recycling awareness in its first year of
operation across the region.
“As we lack recycling infrastructure in so many countries throughout the region,
we need to involve consumers to make recycling sustainable, and ecoins is the
ideal method by which to do so,” said Karla Chavez, Regional Director at
ecoins. “Our partnership with PepsiCo, which goes beyond just funding to include
knowledge sharing, will allow consumer education to truly reach the masses and
make an impact with both short and long-term potential.”
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The second component of the platform is including grassroots recyclers as an
integral part of the circular economy model (similar to what The Body Shop
is now doing in
India).
In this regard, PepsiCo Latin America has a long-standing partnership with the
nonprofit Ciudad Saludable, a catalyst of the
recycling ecosystem in Peru. Since 2008, PepsiCo has supported Ciudad Saludable
in the training of 3,162 grassroots recyclers and 210 public workers, reaching
22 municipalities with access to environmental management tools. Moreover, 2,360
grassroots recyclers and 48 recycling associations were formalized, enabling
them to be integrated into municipal waste management systems, generating
increased income, obtaining access to financial services, and achieving improved
quality of work and life.
Today, The PepsiCo Foundation is announcing a $2 million USD grant to Ciudad
Saludable, to support the inclusion of 1,000 grassroots recyclers in recycling
collection routes across eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru). The program is
also expected to indirectly benefit 800,000 people at the community level with
improved recycling services, and aims to collect 6,000 tons of recyclable
materials.
“We have had a longstanding relationship with PepsiCo because they are committed
to inclusive recycling and have dedicated over a decade to working alongside us
to find solutions,” said Paloma Roldan, Executive Director at Ciudad
Saludable. “We have our work cut out for us, and this grant from The PepsiCo
Foundation will be vital to continue including grassroots recyclers as key
actors of the recycling system and to move towards a circular economy in the
region.”
The third component of Recycling with Purpose focuses on working with the local
recycling industry to strengthen the recycling system and increase the
availability of recycled materials.
By 2021, PepsiCo expects Recycling with Purpose to be operating in 10 countries
in Latin America — Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico,
Panama, Peru, Guatemala and Jamaica. PepsiCo estimates that in its first
year of operation, ecoins will have 300,000 accounts and provide recycling
awareness to nearly one million people in the region. In addition, through the
$2 million grant to Ciudad Saludable at least 1,000 recyclers will be
integrated into the circular economy model by 2021. Recycling with Purpose aims
to collect 6,000 tons of recyclable materials per year across the region.
Thankfully, this isn’t Peru’s first exposure to waste-saving on a grand scale:
In April, Peruvian sustainable tourism and development group Inkaterra
announced that an ongoing partnership with beverage giant AJE Group — which
instituted plastic and organic waste management methods throughout the city
of Machu Picchu Pueblo (aka Aguas Calientes) — made it the first Latin
American
city
to manage 100 percent of its solid waste.
Published Jun 18, 2019 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST
Sustainable Brands Staff
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