COTE D’IVOIRE – Nestlé Côte d’Ivoire, a subsidiary of the the Swiss food group Nestlé, has partnered with the municipality of Cocody, in the greater Abidjan area to launch a plastic waste management project.
The project, christened “J’aime Cocody, loin de ma lagune les déchets plastiques” (I love Cocody, far from my lagoon plastic waste); aims to reduce plastic pollution in the lagoon bays of the Cocody municipality.
The Ivorian project is part of the social commitment of the Swiss firm, which uses plastic in abundance to package its products to reduce its plastic footprint on the environment globally.
Early in January, Nestlé which is the he world’s biggest food company said that it would cut costs in other parts of its business to free up more than 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.6 billion) to buy 2 million metric tons of recycled plastic between now and 2025.
Nestlé said it would be paying above the market rate for the recycled material, part of its strategy to alleviate a shortage of used plastics suitable for food packaging by luring new suppliers into the business.
Doing so should help the company meet its goal of reducing its use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025.
“Plastic has become one of the evils of our century in terms of environmental degradation. And to defeat it, we need a synergy of actions.”
Jean-Marc Yacé – The mayor of the town of Cocody.
The municipality of Cocody and the Nestlé Group plan to set up a plastic waste collection system, which will be tested on each lagoon bay in the municipality.
The system will be based on a network of pre-collectors, thus reducing the pollution that wipes out many species of aquatic animals and keeps tourists away.
An agreement was also signed between the municipality of Cocody, the Nestlé Group and the Envipur association which will see the association take charge of waste collection in the lagoon bays which will then be sorted and recycled.
The Managing Director of Nestlé Côte d’Ivoire, Thomas Caso, also revealed that the Cocody sanitation project will create jobs for young people and promote the development of a circular economy in the commune.
Nestlé Côte d’Ivoire aims to make 100% of its plastic packaging in the greater Abidjan area recyclable or reusable by 2025.
In July this year, the company launched the project “my council without plastic waste” in the council of Abobo, in collaboration with the Envipur association.
The six-month initiative will collect 30 tons of plastic waste from Abobo’s uncontrolled landfills using pre-collectors.
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