Soti Papier teams up with Tetra Pak to recycle plastic waste in Tunisia

TUNISIA – Soti Papier, a Tunisian recycling company has partnered with Tetra Pak to recycle about 9,000 tonnes of plastic waste by 2026.

The initiative will help combat pollution, particularly in the town of Belli located 46 kilometers from the capital Tunis.

 The agreement was signed recently in the factory of Soti Papier, located in Belli near the governorate of Nabeul where people will experience the biodegradable food packaging.

Laurent Rodier, the general manager of Tetra Pak Maghreb said: “This initiative will promote environmental sustainability.

“To do this, we make specific investments with local actors, we provide technical expertise, and we share the experience gained globally with partners to create sustainable recycling value chains.”

For his part, the general manager of Soti Papier, Philippe Lacoste said that this partnership was part of the “Soti Papier’s engage” program, which will allow the company to conquer the African market for environmentally friendly bags for household food shopping.

“The packaging that will be recycled will ultimately produce kraft paper thanks to the high-quality cardboard fiber it contains. The rest of the material will be transformed into granules to make other finished products,” explains Lacoste.

Faced with the economic crisis that Tunisia is experiencing coupled with global warming, the partnership between Soti Papier and Tetra Pak sounds like a call for resilience.

Indeed, the North African country is overwhelmed by the 2.6 million tonnes of waste generated annually by its 12 million inhabitants, especially in urban areas. To remedy this, solutions are implemented at the local level.

This is the case in particular in the northern city of Bizerte where the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the German international development cooperation agency, has financed the construction of a solid waste management center which should open in April 2023.

The facility will strengthen the collection of household and industrial waste in order to improve the living environment of about 140,000 people.

At present, Tunisia recycles only 4-7% of its waste. The recycling sector is currently driven almost exclusively by informal waste collectors known as barbechas.

The North African country needs to adopt a collective approach to waste management, whereby both municipalities and civil society ensure the implementation of a broader national strategy.

It should make room for and incentivize community-level entrepreneurial projects to work on this issue through local recycling companies and initiatives.

This could help foster social contributions and create jobs without the need for international aid. In addition, such an approach could also give rise to opportunities for companies in Europe or neighboring states, such as Libya and Algeria, to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation in North Africa.

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