CAPE TOWN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Major companies in South Africa have offered to solve the plastic problem caused by the surging bottled water consumption because of the severe drought in the country.
Woolworths, one of South Africa's top retailers, offered to take 500,000 plastic bottles from Cape Town to be recycled at a facility in South Africa's northern province Gauteng, local media reported on Thursday.
Woolworths Holdings Group's head of sustainability, Feroz Koor, said that Woolworths realized that increased bottled water sales in Cape Town would put additional pressure on local recycling facilities, according to local media.
Woolworths' business partner, the PET recycling company (PETCO), has also stepped in.
According to a recent press release, the company is currently recycling more than half of all post-consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle in the market and more bottles are being recycled than those going into landfill.
"For me the pressing driver here is to ensure that the extra volume of PET bottles have found their way to the Western Cape on the back of the water crisis and find a home in a recycled product," said Chandru Wadhwani, a board member of PETCO.
Population growth and a record drought, perhaps exacerbated by climate change, is sparking one of the world's most dramatic urban water crises in Cape Town, the second populous urban area in South Africa, according to the National Geographic.
The city says it will be forced to shut off taps to homes and businesses because reservoirs have gotten perilously low -- a possibility officials now consider almost inevitable, the magazine reported.
