Johannesburg – Today, Ceres Fruit Juices announced the introduction of an initiative aimed at reducing plastic waste and has invited Craig Foster, award winning producer of the documentary: My Octopus Teacher, to participate in a roundtable highlighting the impact of plastic waste on the marine environment.
Plastic waste management is a growing concern across the globe, with plastic drinking straws identified as a major contributor to this problem.
Martin Neethling, PepsiCo Sub-Saharan Africa Chief Marketing Officer explains, “A major challenge with plastic straws is that they are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter and therefore difficult to recycle. The only way to tackle this problem is to move away from plastic straws altogether. Hence Ceres’ introduction of eco-friendly straws for some of our juice packs.”
Effective September 2021, all Ceres 200ml packs will migrate from plastic straws to paper straws. Ceres believes that there is an opportunity to change how the world produces, distributes, consumes, and disposes of packaging in order to tackle the shared environmental challenges we face.”
Ceres also believes that we are the choices we make – not only do these choices lead to great juice, they also positively impact the lives of the brand’s consumers and the livelihoods of its farming communities and the environment.
This perspective speaks to PepsiCo’s dedication to constantly evolve its product portfolio in order to contribute to a more sustainable global food system and inspire people to make choices that are better for them and the planet.
Neethling adds that we are all aware that the pollution of our oceans is a contributor to climate change, a challenge which has been described as the greatest of our generation. “Corporates need to stand up and make a change. We cannot wait for tomorrow,” he concludes.
It is against this backdrop that Ceres will be hosting a round table discussion end September 2021 to mark International Coastal Clean-Up Day. The session – which will be chaired and facilitated by Craig Foster who produced and starred in the Oscar Award Winning documentary: My Octopus Teacher – will focus on the protection of our marine environment and encourage communities to get involved in clean-up efforts in their areas .
The public can watch a recording of the round table on Ceres’ Facebook and Instagram social media pages. #cerespaperstrawchallenge