Entries are now open for the 6th Recycled Plastic Product of the Year Awards, organised by the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation (SAPRO) and Plastics SA.

This biennial competition showcases the ingenuity and creativity our local product designers have and aims to encourage brand owners to consider recycled plastics as a material of choice. Whether they are designing packaging or pallets, shoes or shopping bags, this competition has demonstrated that there is no limitation to where and how recycled plastics can be used. 

Winners of this year’s competition will be announced at a gala dinner in Gauteng during Clean-Up and Recycle SA Week (11-17 September 2017).

The City of Cape Town and Mpact were awarded the SAPRO Trophy for the Recycled Product of the Year 2015 for their Fifty/50 Wheelie Bin.

Product categories
In order to encourage even greater participation and entries by local converters and innovators, this year’s competition will have the following five distinct product categories:

• Products made from 100% post-consumer recyclate
• Products containing a percentage post-consumer recyclate
• Products made from recycled mixed materials
• Novel and artistic products - i.e. articles made from discarded plastics products
• And for the first time, there is also a “New Ideas” category - anything that can be made from recycled materials. It does not have to be a product as yet, just the idea clearly explained on a poster, mock-ups or a good explanation.

A gold, silver and bronze winner will be announced in each of these product categories, which will also acknowledge the recycler of the material, the manufacturer of the product as well as the brand owner in front of the auspicious audience during the gala awards ceremony. The overall winning entry will walk away with the trophy for The Best Recycled Product for 2017. 


Judging criteria
Entries will be judged on a number of criteria by a panel of judges, who are experts in plastics, packaging, recycling, product design and marketing. The criteria are: 

• life expectancy of the product
• sustainability (i.e. long-term demand and market acceptance of product)
• measures taken to ensure product consistency and customer satisfaction despite recycled material content
• tonnage (or potential tonnages) of plastics that were converted and therefore diverted from landfill
• technical achievements in manufacturing to overcome recycled material challenges
• replacement of alternative materials 
• “Wow-factor” of the product

Any company in the SADC region may enter the competition if the recycled material originated in South Africa. Products that were entered in previous years’ competitions, but failed to win, are also eligible to enter again. 

The closing date for entries is Thursday 10 August 2017. Entry forms and competition rules can be obtained online from SAPRO’s website.