The #LetsBeClear Innovation Challenge
The Kenya Plastics Pact, a collaborative effort to create a circular economy for plastics in Kenya, is tackling plastic pollution and promoting sustainable plastic use. A key component of this endeavor is the #LetsBeClear Innovation Challenge, launched on 31st May 2023 with support from WWF-Kenya. This challenge is a pivotal step in encouraging companies using plastic packaging to innovate in line with circular design guidelines. By doing so, businesses can reduce their environmental impact and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. The Innovation Challenge is instrumental in advancing the Kenya Plastics Pact Roadmap, particularly Target 2, which aims for 100% plastic packaging to be reusable and recyclable by 2030. Currently, plastic recycling rates in the country stand at approximately 10%.
The first phase of the Innovation Challenge was open to all companies that are members of the Kenya Plastics Pact and currently use plastic packaging. We received an encouraging response, with twelve businesses demonstrating their willingness to innovate their packaging in line with the design guidelines. These companies committed to converting to clear PET for at least one product and eliminating problematic additives in HDPE on at least one product.
I. Designing out coloured PET bottles and promoting clear PET bottles.
II. Designing out problematic additives in the HDPE Plastic packaging.
Project Objectives
To increase awareness, scale willingness, and ensure commitment towards the design guidelines for recyclability.
Specific objectives:
- Encourage existing companies to adopt sustainable packaging solutions in line with circular economy principles.
- Promote innovation and creativity in designing and developing sustainable plastic packaging solutions.
- Enhance the capacity of companies to design and develop/design sustainable plastic packaging solutions.
- Demonstrate the potential for sustainable plastic packaging solutions to contribute to a circular economy.
- Measure and communicate the impact of innovation.
Target Groups & Impact
Target Group(s): Existing companies using plastic packaging (including their technical and marketing teams), Kenya Plastics Pact Members, Plastic packaging design technical experts, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, and Recyclers.
Impact:
- On the 14th and 15th of September 2023, we convened the first technical working groups with innovators from plastic producers: Bidco Africa Ltd., Line Plast Group Limited, Brookside Dairy, Bio Food Products Ltd, Tech Pak, Silafrica and other value chain stakeholders like Taka Taka Solutions, Vintz Plastics, among others to scale willingness and commitment towards the challenge targets.
- On 10th November 2023, we hosted an interactive workshop with Marketing Managers from the businesses participating in our #LETSBECLEAR Innovation Challenge. It actively explored strategies for marketing products in revamped, more environmentally friendly packaging while maintaining quality. The workshop also empowered and equipped the marketers to drive change with innovative strategies to promote eco-friendly campaigns, ensure impactful communication with consumers, and influence their consumption behavior.
- Hosted the final workshop on December 6, 2024, with Members of the C-suit, where five of the twelve initial companies made clear commitments on how and when to deliver on either of the two focus areas of the #LETSBECLEAR Innovation Challenge.
- Bio Foods pledged to adopt rPET by 50% by 2026. Similarly, Bidco Africa is making strides by removing color from one of its beverage SKUs in the future and eliminating the security cap seal in its Brand Planet Aqua Water, reducing unnecessary plastic by one metric ton in 2022. Silafrica is working towards achieving 100% recyclable content in its plastic packaging by 2025. Line Plast Group is transitioning from HDPE printing to labeling (water-based) by 80% and from tinted PET bottles to clear PET by 2025. Takataka Solutions, a Nairobi-based recycler, emphasized the role of awareness creation, committing to create enough awareness to ensure all material produced reaches the recycler and does not become plastic pollution.
- The Let’s Be Clear Innovation Challenge marked a pivotal moment in the fight against plastic pollution. It also forms an important platform where plastic producers begin to build their capacity to fully comply with the mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements stipulated in the Sustainable Waste Management Act of 2022.
Furthermore, it aligns with national and global initiatives promoting the principles of circularity in plastic packaging, including the EPR and Global Plastics Treaty, that promote better product design to reduce plastic use and improve recycling.