In celebration of PETCO’s 12th year of operating in the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic recycling industry, key role-players in the industry are invited to save the date for the 11th PETCO AGM taking place on Thursday, 21 July 2016 from 11:00 to 15:00 at The Venue Green Park, Sandton. As part of the AGM proceedings, PETCO will also be hosting their PETCO Awards, the aim of which is to honour individuals, businesses and organisations that played a significant role in the PET recycling value chain in South Africa during the course of 2015.

“PETCO is delighted that for the eleventh successive year, the post-consumer PET bottle-recycling rate has increased, despite two of the biggest falls in oil prices seen in recent years,” says CEO Cheri Scholtz. “The 1.7 billion PET bottles that were collected across South Africa in 2015, which equates to approximately 4.7 million bottles collected each and every day, sustained over 50 000 income opportunities.”

In its latest results for 2015, PETCO reports that the organisation recycled an additional 15% of post-consumer bottles in comparison to the previous year, with the total PET market growing by 8.5% to 210 000 tonnes. An annual PET recycling rate of 52% of post-consumer bottle PET was achieved and, for the first time, PETCO recycled more bottles than those going into landfill.

Scholtz continues: “While this is an extremely proud accomplishment for PETCO, we could not have achieved this without the people, companies and organisations we work with that have made extraordinary contributions to the recycling of post-consumer PET in South Africa.”

The PETCO Awards, which will form part of PETCO’s 2016 Annual General Meeting (AGM), have specifically been created to recognise and celebrate stakeholders in the PET value chain for their commitment and contributions to advancing the PET recycling industry.

“The 2016 PETCO Awards is all about celebrating the great innovations, achievements and contributions made by individuals and organisations towards PET recycling within South Africa’s PET sector,” concludes Scholtz.

Media RSVP to De Wet Bergh on 081 439 3912 or dewet@reputationmatters.co.za by no later than 16:00, 19 July 2016.

For more information about the PETCO AGM and Awards, contact PETCO on info@petco.co.za.