Huhtamaki and WasteAid partner on circular economy innovation
To mark its 100-year anniversary, Huhtamaki is donating €3m ($3.27m) to global sustainability initiatives with a local impact.
The Huhtamaki-funded project will provide financial support for WasteAid to deliver education and training on waste management and circular systems. It will enable the charity to work with stakeholders in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Guwahati, Assam, India, on local solutions that create value and reduce waste and pollution, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Ceris Turner-Bailes, WasteAid chief executive, said, “The shift towards a circular economy offers vast potential for global development and WasteAid is proud to be at the forefront of that change. This major partnership between WasteAid and Huhtamaki offers the opportunity for greater impact and is a huge milestone in the development of WasteAid as an organization. We’re delighted to be working with the Huhtamaki team and look forward to delivering this groundbreaking initiative over the coming two years.”
President and CEO of Huhtamaki, Charles Héaulmé, said, “We want to make a difference, where it matters most. We want to support local communities concretely, by providing education and training on waste management and circular systems. Delivering on our ambitious sustainability agenda requires collaboration across the value chain.
“We chose to partner with WasteAid as it is already making a positive impact on plastic pollution. An illustration of this is their project in West Africa, where trainees are turning plastic waste into useful products like paving tiles. Very quickly the local team prevented a million plastic bags from being burned, or reaching the ocean. A year after, 55 families continue to collect, sort and process plastic waste, reducing pollution and carbon emissions and protecting the health of their community in Gunjur, Gambia. We will be learning from our partnership with WasteAid and will share our insights with global stakeholders as part of our sustainability journey to deliver on our 2030 strategy.”
The two-year program will focus on educating diverse local communities via a cloud-based learning platform, networking events and training programs, and will seek to inspire sustainable solutions through local innovation competitions.
The program hopes to develop alternatives to dumping and burning of waste to make homes more liveable, reduce health problems, and build stronger local economies.
WasteAid is a UK registered charity set up by waste management professionals to tackle the global waste crisis. It works with communities in low-income countries to address the root causes of climate change and marine plastic pollution.
