Polyco and the future of plastics recycling in South Africa

Behind much of the growth in South African plastics recycling sits an organisation many people have seen on banners and buyback units but few fully understand: Polyco. As WasteGo Green's affiliation partner, Polyco shapes the systems that make community recycling viable. Here's how it works and where plastics recycling is heading.

Who is Polyco?

Polyco — "People. Purpose. Plastics Recycling." — is a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) for plastic packaging in South Africa. Its members are producers: the companies that make and use plastic packaging. Polyco collects Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees from these members and reinvests them to grow plastics recycling across the country.

In short, Polyco channels producer money into the recycling value chain so that more plastic is collected, recycled and turned back into useful products.

What Polyco actually does

Polyco's work spans the whole chain:

• Funding infrastructure — supporting recyclers, sorting facilities and equipment.
• Driving collection — including the Packa-Ching mobile buyback model that operators like WasteGo Green run in communities.
• Developing markets — helping create demand for recycled plastic so collection stays economically viable.
• Education and awareness — teaching households, schools and businesses how and why to recycle.
• Supporting collectors — providing gear, training and fair buyback systems that bring dignity and income to the people on the front lines.

Why this matters for communities

For a community in Dunoon, Joe Slovo or the northern suburbs, Polyco's work shows up as something very tangible: a buyback unit that pays cash for recyclables, a steady market for the material collectors gather, and the funding that makes local recycling enterprises like WasteGo Green sustainable. Without a PRO investing upstream, much of this simply wouldn't be financially possible.

The numbers tell a story

Polyco's campaigns highlight the scale of the effort — hundreds of millions of rands invested, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic recycling growth supported, and partnerships with scores of projects across the country. Each tonne represents plastic kept out of landfill and the environment, and money flowing into local economies.

Where plastics recycling is heading

Several trends are shaping the future:

• Stronger EPR. As producer responsibility matures, more funding will flow into collection and recycling, and packaging will be designed to be more recyclable.
• Design for recyclability. Producers are moving away from hard-to-recycle multi-layer packaging towards recyclable mono-materials like PET and HDPE.
• More buyback access. Mobile models like Packa-Ching are extending recycling into communities that were previously unreached.
• Growing demand for recycled content. Brands committing to use recycled plastic create the markets that keep collection profitable.
• Formalising collectors. Bringing informal waste pickers — the backbone of SA recycling — into safer, better-paid, more dignified systems.

The role of operators like WasteGo Green

PROs provide the funding and frameworks, but recycling happens on the ground. Local operators are where the strategy meets reality: running buyback days, employing and supporting collectors, sorting and baling material, and shipping it onward to recyclers. WasteGo Green's affiliation with Polyco connects our Milnerton-based, community-rooted operation to a national system that's building South Africa's circular economy.

The bottom line

Polyco is one of the engines behind the recycling progress you can see in your own neighbourhood. By making producers pay for the packaging they create and reinvesting that money into collection, markets and people, it's helping turn plastic from a pollution problem into a resource and an income. The future of plastics recycling in South Africa is more collection, better design and stronger markets — and communities are at the centre of it.

Want to be part of it? Recycle with WasteGo Green and turn your plastic into cash.