Supercart trolley crowned Recycled Product of the Year

A HUMBLE supermarket trolley has been crowned the Best Recycled Product of the Year at the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation’s biennial competition, which took place on 14 October 2021.

Manufactured by Supercart SA for Pick n Pay and entered for the Consumer & Leisure category, the trolley is moulded in HDPE and comprises of 50% post-consumer recyclate, provided by recycler MyPlas.

Commenting on this year’s competition, SAPRO general manager Phil Sereme said despite being virtual, the event once again attracted entries from around the country, representing a wide range of different industries and end-uses.

“Large, everyday articles that are well-made promote recycling in the best possible manner. Plastics need all the help they can get to remove the discomfort consumers associate with recycled products and the trolley goes a long way in achieving that.  PE-HD is fully recycled in South Africa and large mouldings are particularly popular for recycling. It opens up the way for retailers to demonstrate circularity in an everyday product,” Sereme said.

‘Only limit to the use of recycled plastic is imagination’
“The judges were very impressed with the wide range of different products from around the country. Ranging from skirting boards, dado rails and air conditioner ducts to water tanks, household cleaning bottles, school desks, rat traps and owl houses, this year’s products showed that the only limit to the use of recycled plastic is imagination,” he added.

“I don’t think people will ever look at their supermarket trolley in the same way again. Once you understand the large amount of effort that MyPlas has put into collecting and recycling the material used to produce the trolley, combined with the innovation and manufacturing expertise of the Supercart team, you start to appreciate the rich tapestry of hard work that makes each trolley a work of art!”

The 2021 SAPRO awards had various new categories in which entries could be submitted. Products were judged on a number of criteria, including life expectancy and sustainability of product, measures taken to ensure product consistency and customer satisfaction despite recycled material content, tonnages (or potential tonnages) of plastic waste that have and will be converted (and hence diverted from landfill) in the product roll-out, as well as the technical achievements in manufacturing to overcome production challenges presented by the use of recycled material.

“The judges were looking for products that created new end-markets for recyclate and that would continue to be in demand five years from now. We can honestly say that all the products entered for this year’s competition had a ‘Wow factor’ that will cause people to start thinking differently about recycled material,” explained Sereme.