Albany Launches Collect-A-Pack: A School Recycling Initiative on Global Recycling Day
Cape Town – Tiger Brands’ premium bread brand, Albany, has unveiled the new “Albany Collect-A-Pack” recycling initiative.
The launch of Albany Collect-A-Pack on Tuesday, (18 March 2025), aligns with Global Recycling Day.
This initiative aims to educate over 900,000 learners in 500 primary schools across South Africa on the significance of recycling, its practical applications, and the positive effects it has on the environment, their lives, and their communities.
Albany Collect-A-Pack is a programme designed to align with the school curriculum, integrating practical and theoretical learning to motivate students from Grade R to Grade 7 to get actively involved in waste recycling.
Created by Albany, South Africa’s top bread brand, in partnership with an accredited South African educationalist, Albany Collect-A-Pack functions as a thorough Life Skills/Life Orientation module.
The programme encourages both learners and teachers to gather plastic bread packaging for recycling.
Each term, the highest-performing schools will receive R100,000, which will be allocated for much-needed improvements to their school facilities.
The collected plastic bread packaging will be upcycled through community advancement projects to generate income opportunities.
Beyond recycling, the initiative also focuses on educating students about food safety and hygiene, providing them with essential knowledge to improve their well-being and promote healthier habits.
“Young South Africans are increasingly conscious of the impact their actions have on the environment and their own lives and communities,” said Lorraine De Graaff, Marketing Director of Albany.
“They are actively looking for ways to protect their futures.”
“Our responsibility is to provide young people in communities with the tools and support needed to create a meaningful impact.”
Albany Collect-A-Pack will also involve parents, community members, and spaza stores, promoting collective responsibility for sustainability.
“By broadening our reach, we can significantly minimize the plastic waste that accumulates along roads and in landfills, while nurturing a strong sense of community and shared responsibility among South Africans,” De Graaff emphasized.
Tiger Brands is a signatory to the SA Plastics Pact
As a participant in the SA Plastics Pact, Tiger Brands has committed to reducing plastic packaging, elevating recycling rates, and integrating more recycled content into its packaging.
Tiger Brands stated: “In line with our updated 2030 objectives, we aim to ensure that 80% of plastic packaging is recyclable or compostable, and that all plastic packaging (by volume) contains at least 25% post-consumer content.”
Tiger Brands supports the reduce-reuse-recycle strategy and prioritizes a circular economy approach in devising packaging solutions for new products and renovating existing ones.