Dow Packaging has introduced a new Project Butterfly by which it will engage in a river clean-exercise as well as educate the local communities on the value of plastics and the importance of not littering.
Dow has initiated Project Butterfly with Mashemong Primary School, in the township of Tembisa, South Africa’s second largest township after Soweto. The idea was to educate a local community and the school children about the importance of recycling and waste management to ensure a sustainable future for all and to sow the seeds about eliminating landfill.
According to Dow’s Middle East and Africa Leader for Sustainability Alessandro Corticelli, Project Butterfly was born from the idea that transformation is always possible and that with support and imagination, something ordinary or even dull and unpleasant, can transform into something beautiful and valuable.
He added, “We wanted to launch a social impact project which is specific to Dow and specific to Africa, to show Dow Packaging’s commitment to the region as well as an understanding of some of the waste management and end-of-life packaging challenges and issues facing the different regions in Africa.”
Corticelli said, “As we know, litter and poor waste management is one of the most pressing and most visible environmental issues we face globally, with daily stories of how it is affecting marine life and our natural environment. Unfortunately, poor waste management and littering often focus on the plastics industry as the main culprit.”
Dow hopes to replicate the Project Butterfly in Nigeria.
“The idea is to use this as an ongoing project which serves as an educational platform, demonstrating to communities throughout Africa about why it is important to keep our environment litter free, but at the same time showing what can be made out of recycled plastics, and that there is inherent value in the waste that we collect and sort,” concluded Corticelli.