Transforming plastic waste into raw material with KfW/DEG
GRI 102-12
Bangladesh has a problem with plastic waste. Every day, thousands of tonnes of waste end up on the streets and in the waters of Dhaka. The Ganges, which opens out into the Indian Ocean in Bangladesh, spits out more plastic waste into the world's oceans than almost any other river. With support from DEG, LC Packaging has set up GreenBANGLA to launch a plastics recycling start-up in Bangladesh.
As a packaging manufacturer, LC Packaging feels obliged to take responsibility for recycling as well. To be more precise: GreenBANGLA’s 30 or so employees are responsible for upcycling! They work closely together with local producers of plastic products who, for instance, source granules from recycled plastic from GreenBANGLA. GreenBANGLA’s production location is certified in accordance with internationally recognised environmental and social standards.
Safe jobs – high environmental and social standards
Upcycling calls for qualified staff. 30 graduates from various technical schools are now permanently employed and properly trained at GreenBANGLA. Upon joining, they received extensive training, from local and international trainers, on all aspects of safe handling and sorting waste.
After training, these specialists collect reusable plastic waste from local companies. The goods then have to be carefully separated according to plastic type, level of contamination, and colour. The better the plastic is separated, the better quality of the regrind for producing polypropylene or polyethylene.
By paying its staff far higher wages than the local norm and its waste suppliers far higher purchase prices, GreenBANGLA not only contributes to cleaning up the streets and waters of Dhaka, but also helps improve their overall standard of living.
develoPPP.de programme
A portion of the investment costs for the upcycling project were contributed by DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, a KfW subsidiary – using funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development's develoPPP.de programme. The three Ps stand for Public Private Partnership. DeveloPPP.de aims to promote the private sector in developing countries. The German Federal Government's develoPPP.de projects “are designed to achieve the greatest possible overlap between business-related and development policy goals,” says Susanne Striegler, senior investment manager at DEG. For DEG it is important that the projectpartner pays over the minimum wage, employs more women, and complies with international health and safety standards.
At LC Packaging, we value our long-term partnerships with production partners, NGO’s and others. We believe there is always room for innovation and development when it comes to sourcing, designing, manufacturing and establishing after-use solutions for our products and collaborate with partners who can help us do so. In our LC Partner Stories we share projects and initiatives we are working on with our trusted partners.