Pasig, The Philippines-based Century Pacific Food (CNPF), has announced that it has become “plastic-neutral” with all of its plastic waste converted to energy.
In a statement released on 14 February, CNPF said the company and Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures (PIZZA), another unit also owned by the Century Pacific Group (CPG), has since last month fulfilled their “plastic-neutral” target, a goal initiated last year to manage waste from their business operations.
CNPF is a supplier of private label tuna products and a producer of other marine products while PIZZA operates pizza and full-service restaurants in the Philippines.
CNPF said the two companies and a cement producer, Republic Cement, in 2019 agreed to co-process plastic waste, and turn this into an alternative fuel used for cement production to replace coal. The co-processing involves using heat to recover thermal or mineral properties in the waste which can be used in the cement industry.
Republic Cement already got approval from Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources for application of the co-processing in cement production.
“Consumer companies face significant cost and performance challenges in finding more sustainable alternatives to plastic. While co-processing is not the perfect solution, it can mitigate the environmental impact of plastic usage,” president of CPG Christopher Po. said in the statement, adding that the partnership with the cement producer will “balance out our environmental effects”.
CNPF, PIZZA and Republic Cement signed the agreement on the re-processing in June last year. At that time, CNPF was the first tuna producer in the Philippines to participate in a global coalition to conserve maritime resources, The Philippine Star reported.
The “plastic-neutral” goal has been widely pushed in the world to reduce plastic pollution. As many as 300 million metric tons (MT) of plastic are discharged to the environment every year, much of which is buried in landfills or thrown to the seas.
