South African Plastics Pact Flexible Packaging Solutions Showcase

The report details a showcase event hosted by GreenCape to connect South African brand owners and retailers with packaging manufacturers offering recyclable alternatives to problematic flexible plastics, specifically targeting polypropylene (PP) and multilayer multi-polymer packaging. While mono-material polyethylene alternatives are identified as viable, the report highlights significant barriers to adoption, including a lack of local demand to justify dedicated production lines, high costs of upgrading filling lines, and a need for operator training. These challenges hinder the progress toward the South African Plastics Pact's 2025 targets, including the goal for 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable.

• The South African Plastics Pact has established four targets for 2025: eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastic, ensuring 100% of plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable, achieving a minimum 70% effective recycling rate, and incorporating at least 30% recycled content across all plastic packaging.
• Flexible polypropylene (PP) and multilayer multi-polymer packaging are identified as primary challenges; the former suffers from low recycling rates due to small market size and lack of economies of scale, while the latter is unsuitable for mechanical recycling due to incompatible polymers and is typically downcycled into low-value construction materials.
• In 2023, problematic flexible packaging items accounted for approximately 35,000 tonnes of packaging placed on the market by South African Plastics Pact members.
• The showcase identified mono-material polyethylene (PE) flexibles as a viable alternative for vacuum bags, shrink bags, thermoforms, flow wrapping, and pouches, as these are widely collected for recycling in South Africa.
• Several barriers impede the adoption of recyclable flexible packaging, including the lack of local demand to justify dedicated production lines—forcing inefficient material switching on existing lines—the high cost of upgrading conversion and filling lines, and insufficient training for operators on filling lines.

APA

GreenCape (n.d.). South African Plastics Pact Flexible Packaging Solutions Showcase. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Insights-report-SA-Plastics-Pact-Flexible-Solution-Showcase.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. South African Plastics Pact Flexible Packaging Solutions Showcase. n.d. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Insights-report-SA-Plastics-Pact-Flexible-Solution-Showcase.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=South African Plastics Pact Flexible Packaging Solutions Showcase |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Insights-report-SA-Plastics-Pact-Flexible-Solution-Showcase.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencapendsouth, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{South African Plastics Pact Flexible Packaging Solutions Showcase}}, institution = {GreenCape}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Insights-report-SA-Plastics-Pact-Flexible-Solution-Showcase.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }