The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and a group of leading bottled water and soft drink manufacturers have launched a report at the House of Commons, which sets out an ambitious roadmap to eliminate plastic packaging waste from the bottled water and soft drinks value chain by 2030.

The report, the first of its kind, is set out to enable and encourage other industries and countries to create their own systemic roadmaps and visions to eliminate plastic packaging waste.

The report, developed collaboratively by the industry and its stakeholders, sets out key actions and aspirations to make eliminating plastic packaging waste a strategic priority. These include:

• Producers to commit to all bottled water and soft drinks packaging to be made from 100 per cent recyclable or reusable material and aim for at least 70 per cent recycled material by 2025.
• Producers and Government to investigate the optimal material of the future for bottled water and soft drinks that eliminates plastic waste while ensuring the lowest overall environmental impact.
• Producers and Government to undertake research into consumer behaviour to support recycling ambitions towards achieving a ‘circular economy’ for bottled water and soft drinks packaging.
• Government to create a consistent nationwide recycling system, and reinvest revenue from new policies into UK recycling, sorting and reprocessing capacity.

The roadmap provides a clear timeline for working towards the ultimate goal of transitioning to a more circular economy for plastic soft drinks packaging, where plastic packaging use is reduced wherever possible and otherwise is reusable or recovered and recycled.

The report was developed with input from the Future of Plastic Packaging Working Group: Lucozade Ribena Suntory and members of the Natural Hydration Council: Brecon Mineral Waters, Danone Waters (UK and Ireland), Harrogate Water Brands, Highland Spring Group, Montgomery Waters, Nestlé Waters UK, Shepley Spring and Wenlock Spring.

Read the full report.

Boxmore Packaging, with headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, will become a fully owned subsidiary of the Austrian packaging specialist ALPLA

ALPLA, a leading provider of plastic packaging worldwide, has bought an African market leader in the form of Boxmore Packaging. The company, headquartered in Samrand, Johannesburg, specialises in PET pre-forms, PET bottles and closures, and currently employs around 1,000 members of staff at nine locations.

‘The African continent is an attractive growth market for us. With the purchase of Boxmore Packaging, we now also have a broad basis for entering the market in South Africa, in addition to our activities with ALPLA TABA in North Africa’, says ALPLA CEO Günther Lehner. ALPLA has acquired 100 % of Boxmore Packaging. All employees and locations are being taken on by ALPLA, although it has been decided that the management structure will remain the same. The current board, under the leadership of Len Engelbrecht (Boxmore CEO), will continue to manage the existing Boxmore business, and in addition, take on responsibility for the integration and management of the existing ALPLA SA business. For the foreseeable future the company will continue to operate under the existing name as a member of the ALPLA Group.

Leaders in South Africa

Founded in 1995, Boxmore Packaging is seen as the market leader for PET pre-forms and bottles (ISBM technology), as well as closures, in southern Africa. Its headquarters are located in the industrial zone of Samrand near the South African city of Johannesburg. Around 1,000 employees currently manufacture approximately 4 billion of the aforementioned products each year at nine production locations. The customers of Boxmore Packaging are situated in more than 20 African countries, as well as on the islands in the Indian Ocean.

‘Both the products and customer structure of Boxmore Packaging suit our corporate structure very well’, emphasised Christoph Riedlsperger, ALPLA’s Regional Director for Africa, Middle East and Turkey. The active customer base includes numerous international consumer goods companies and long-term customers of ALPLA, but also local customers previously unknown to ALPLA. ‘With this acquisition, the biggest in the history of the company, we are taking a significant step towards our targets on the African continent,’ says Günther Lehner.

Len Engelbrecht is delighted with this strategic partnership saying, “Our combined ambition to prioritise growth in Africa is a very exciting opportunity and one that we’ll be exploring through Boxmore’s current footprint, and existing relationships in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

The takeover was signed on 5th of July 2017, implementation remains subject to the required legal and regulatory approval by the competition authorities. The contract parties have reached a confidentiality agreement regarding the financial details.