Recycle Week 2019

RECYCLING. IT'S IN OUR OWN HANDS.

Since 2018, awareness about the use of plastics has encouraged businesses, governments and people around the world to take action. This year’s Recycle Week theme, ‘Recycling. It’s in our own hands’, empowers us all to improve the way we use and re-use plastics and waste.

As a Group we have a range of ongoing initiatives to recycle and reduce the use of single-use plastics, and we encourage our communities to consider alternatives through a range of programmes which bring awareness to this important cause.

WASTE MANAGEMENT – A KEY PRIORITY

We encourage our communities to manage waste more responsibly through a range of awareness programmes.

Hope Tea Estate, Goodricke, India marked World Earth Day in April by launching a campaign to make the estate completely plastic free by the end of this year. Meetings were organised at the estate and its surrounding community to emphasise the importance of not using single-use plastics by the local residents and the shopkeepers. 

A disabled group from the community have come together in making paper bags for distribution among shopkeepers and small traders. Cloth bags, made by the estate group, were distributed to households and local shops to increase awareness of alternatives to single-use plastics in everyday life. Tea, which our employees receive each month in plastic bags, is now packaged in paper bags.

RE-USE OF WASTE-WATER

As well as managing the re-use and reduction of waste streams we consider the re-use of waste-water a critical factor in encouraging the circular model.

In most of our operations we capture rain water and re-use grey water from the field and factories through a range of filtration methods.

At Eastern Produce Kenya we filter water from factories via a range of specially constructed Wetlands, where water is filtered using the natural action of plants and weeds. In Eastern Produce Cape, waste-water from the cellar is filtered using aerobic and anaerobic methods in a settling tank before being pumped back to our dams for use in the vineyard.

At Duncan Brothers, Bangladesh, sand and brick-chip filled soak pits have been installed at all factories for the treatment of factory wastewater.

We recently won a sustainability award at the 10th Annual North American Tea Conference for our initiative in Nandi County by Eastern Produce Kenya.

We supported 21 schools to install rain-water capture systems where school children previously had to carry bottles of water to school. This initiative not only reduced the need for plastics but also had a direct impact on attendance rates of school children and inspired many residents to install rain-water capture systems in their own homes.