SIG has teamed up with the social enterprise Plastic Bank and an experienced partner in development cooperation, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, to unveil a project set to reshape Egypt’s recycling landscape while increasing security for waste collection members.
Egypt generates more than 95 million tons of waste annually and currently only 60 % of this waste is collected, with less than 20% of that being properly disposed of or recycled*. At present there is no formalized system for waste collection and recycling. The partnership between SIG, GIZ Egypt, and the social enterprise Plastic Bank aims to address this pressing issue and achieve positive change. In a three-year initiative, the partners are on a mission to collect 700 metric tons of beverage cartons, while also aiming to improve the livelihood for around 1,000 local waste collection members via blockchain.
The PlasticBank® app, backed by the social enterprise’s proprietary blockchain-secured platform, provides traceability and transparency in waste collection, empowering waste collectors to convert every piece of discarded material into a source of revenue. Waste collection members will be able to log each collected product via the app to earn incentives deposited directly into their digital wallets and gain access to social benefits, including health, work and life insurance, digital connectivity, grocery vouchers, school supplies, and more. Furthermore, the waste collection members will undergo training and receive personal safety equipment for their well-being at work.
By streamlining and tracking the collection and recycling of waste, including used beverage cartons, this project also takes a broader role for laying the groundwork for an extended producer responsibility (EPR) model in Egypt. It aligns closely with the Egypt Waste Management Regulatory Authority to weave recycling into the legislative framework and underscores the important role of packaging manufacturers in environmental stewardship.
Abdelghany Eladib, President & General Manager India, Middle East and Africa at SIG: “Our new partnership goes one step further in accelerating our progress towards a circular economy. Extending social waste collection and recycling programs like this one in Egypt will help to achieve our goals and is a blueprint for future programs. By establishing a recycling system for beverage cartons in the Greater Cairo area and beyond, SIG is focused on reducing the environmental impact und creating a market for recycled paper.”
This project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funding program “develoPPP” and its special initiative “Decent Work for a Just Transition”.
*https://www.rvo.nl/files/file/2022-11/Quick-scan-in-the-Egyptian-Economy.pdf
Koa is disrupting transparency in the cocoa industry. The Swiss-Ghanaian start-up is launching a system, using blockchain technology, that proves transactions and higher income for cocoa farmers. In an international collaboration with the companies seedtrace (Germany) and MTN Group (South Africa), Koa has implemented a new, tamper-proof and scalable transparency system that records payments made to cocoa smallholders. Mobile money payments are verified in real-time and are irreversibly stored on a blockchain. Transactions are made publicly available, differentiating themselves from existing certification labels, providing consumers with direct proof that farmers receive the full payment.
Over the last decades, supply chain scandals and cocoa farmer poverty have continued to rock the cocoa industry, leading to increased consumer demand and political efforts to improve transparency and accountability within the cocoa industry. Yet, consumers struggle to put their trust in brands and their initiatives. While products carry certification labels, the inevitable question remains: How can I be sure that farmers receive the money that they’re entitled to?
Koa, the Swiss-Ghanaian start-up making use of cocoa food waste, has set sail to disrupt transparency standards and to enable consumers to obtain assurance. “We want to get rid of long, non-transparent supply chains,” emphasises Anian Schreiber, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Koa. “Instead of claiming good practices, we put our cards on the table to let the consumers witness each transaction to farmers.” The start-up is known for upcycling the white pulp that surrounds the cocoa beans, thereby significantly increasing the income of Ghanaian smallholders, while offering a solution to reduce farmer poverty. Koa is working with over 2,200 cocoa farmers and will add an additional 10,000 farmers to its value chain in the next two years.
Removing the room for errors and opaque marketing messages
To develop the pioneering transparency system, Koa collaborated with Berlin-based seedtrace, a SaaS start-up on a mission to make supply chain transparency the norm. Existing certification labels often validate transactions through non-transparent, error-prone control procedures, with farmers regularly only receiving a portion of the funds claimed to be earmarked for them. To combat this, seedtrace created a system that removes the room for error and enables customers to monitor the extra income paid to farmers. “We verify each transaction and store it on an open, low-emission blockchain. Together with Koa, we thereby set new standards assuring that the information is verified, cannot be manipulated and is accessible in real-time for all stakeholders,” explains Ana Selina Haberbosch, CEO at seedtrace.
Blockchain enables full transparency
The new system is unique as it connects blockchain with mobile money transactions. “Instead of having a person enter information on the blockchain, it links the data from mobile money transactions. This combination allows us to verify additional farmer income, deliver full proof and increase trust among stakeholders,” says Francis Appiagyei-Poku, Finance and Administration Director at Koa. To make this possible, Koa and seedtrace have partnered with MTN Group, Africa’s largest telecommunications operator, who’s mobile money transaction data serves as secure inputs for the blockchain provided by US company Topl. 360-degree transparency is achieved by implementing clear, transparent, and compliant data management processes that protects individual data and keep farmers informed of data use.
Oberweis first to integrate the system
Leading the way towards full transparency is Jeff Oberweis, the renowned pastry chef from Luxembourg, who sends consumers on a journey from cocoa farmers to the final product. A QR code on the packaging of the product containing Koa ingredients leads consumers to the seedtrace platform where they can see the additional farmer income. “In 2022, we want to have proof that people are paid fairly and that we work on an equal footing throughout the value chain. Koa’s integration of the blockchain guarantees total transparency and allows us to set an example to the industry,” emphasises Jeff Oberweis.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain technology is at its very core a database, distributed across many servers in a network. The biggest benefits of using blockchain for supply chain management are transparency and traceability. Essentially, blockchain allows organizations to store information about transactions and their impact in an immutable and transparent way, ensuring that information about upstream events arrives downstream unaltered. Since the companies Koa and seedtrace are using a public blockchain and every actor has their own copy of the chain, it cannot be tampered with, which increases the transparency and trust- worthiness of the provided information.
Since Koa pays farmers with mobile money (real money) through the mobile payment provider MTN, the tracing partner seedtrace can verify every individual transaction. Once triggered by Koa, seedtrace verifies through MTN whether the transaction arrived with the right person and the right amount before storing the data immutably on the blockchain.
Eckes-Granini and Refresco today announced that they have established the JuicyChain Foundation. This is a nonprofit organization with the purpose of making the global juice supply chain more sustainable. The foundation will manage and further develop the “JuicyChain”, which is an open source blockchain-based traceability and transparency platform. IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative is acting as an Advisor to the Board of the JuicyChain Foundation.
This new platform, based on The New Fork’s open food chain platform, was designed to create added value for all parties involved in the juice supply chain: from growers to processors, bottlers, brand owners, retailers and consumers. JuicyChain supports a move towards a significant increase in availability of sustainable juice in the marketplace. All companies in the juice industry can join JuicyChain and share information about sustainable juice easily and efficiently. Consumers and other stakeholders will be able to examine provenance and sustainability data by scanning a unique QR code on a finished juice product.
The New Fork has developed the platform blueprint and are the JuicyChain Foundation’s IT Provider. This blockchain based platform brings transparency to the efforts to increase the sustainability of juice in the industry.
“The blockchain technology brings us new and exciting possibilities to drive positive change. With the JuicyChain, we are continuing to work on increasing digitalization and sustainability of our business processes.” explains Holger Schlenger, CIO at Eckes-Granini.
JuicyChain aims to accelerate the uptake of sustainable juice volumes by providing supply chain transparency and trust. It enables customer and consumer-facing communication on sustainable juice with minimum entry barriers. JuicyChain members will need to be aligned with the sustainable sourcing definitions under the Sustainable Juice Covenant, hosted by IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative.
More companies are invited
We invite all parties in the juice supply chain to join JuicyChain so that we can further develop the platform together. Join us and be a frontrunner driving traceability, transparency and sustainability in global juice supply chains. As Coert Michielsen, CPO at Refresco says: “By teaming up with others we can move faster towards a common goal of more sustainable juice supply chains and promote the uptake of sustainable juice across the supply chain.”
For more information, please visit the official website https://juicychain.org
Clearly and successfully communicating sustainability credentials to consumers is key to developments in food and drinks packaging. This benchmark has been crowned by Innova Market Insights as the Top Packaging Trend in 2020. Innova’s consumer research indicates that consumer expectations around sustainability are higher than ever, pushing companies to prioritize eco-efficiency, especially in reducing food and plastic waste. In response, the food industry is increasingly committing to answering a more mindful consumer’s expectations in this area, while marketing this commitment on-pack.
Innova Market Insights continuously analyzes global developments in food and drinks launches and consumer activities to highlight the trends most likely to impact industry over the coming year and beyond. Its top five trends packaging trends for this year are:
1. The language of environmental sustainability
As consumer expectations continue to grow, companies are increasingly using packaging as a canvas to communicate sustainability. Over the 2015 to 2019 period, over one-third of all food and beverage launches tracked by Innova Market Insights carried an ethical packaging claim (e. g. recycled or recyclable materials). A whole range of different avenues can be used for storytelling to communicate packaging sustainability, which encompasses energy use, renewable materials, plastic free, source reduction and end of lifecycle. The use of trust certifications, marks and logos, such as Plastic Free and Metal Recycles Forever, increasingly used to communicate resource circularity.
2. Plastics come full circle
As circular economy targets loom on the horizon, the incorporation of recycled plastics into packaging is on the rise, with PCR (Post Consumer Recycled) supply partnerships and chemcycling tie-ups rising globally across a range of industries. In the meantime, more bottles are hitting the 100 % recycled plastics milestone, while other formats such as trays and pots are playing catch up with increasingly high percentages of PCR material. As suppliers come up with more recycle-ready mono-material solutions, developments such as NEO plastics can increase energy output at landfills. A rising tide of companies are supporting initiatives aimed at mitigating the impact of plastic pollution, particularly ocean clean up.
3. Packing an e-punch
Continuing strong growth in online retail channels with an associated rise in demand for corrugated board is driving e-commerce packaging. Developments in strong, lightweight recyclable boxes made with minimal resources aim to minimize damage during transit, while still offering a unique and engaging unboxing experience for consumers. There is also ongoing activity in sustainable alternatives to single-use protective filler materials, as well as developments offering a reduced carbon footprint.
4. Internet of packaging
As IoT (Internet of Things) technologies become all-pervasive, QR codes, NFC and blockchain are elevating engagement and transparency. Top reasons for scanning include promotions/rewards, interactive content, product authenticity, supply chain transparency and consumer brand engagement. The use of blockchain, for instance, can offer traceability and transparency, while NFC can be a valuable avenue for digital storytelling.
5. Plant-based packaging
There is an increasing focus on developing biodegradable and compostable alternatives from renewable resources. Cellulose-based packaging has been at the forefront of plant-based innovation, but there are numerous developments in biodegradable/compostable initiatives, led by snacks and confectionery, which accounted for over 60 % of global food and drinks launches with certified compostable claims tracked by Innova Market Insights over the 2017 to 2020 period.
