Two companies under the Century Pacific Group (CPG) are now officially “plastic-neutral”, fulfilling a goal set in 2019 to help manage its post-consumer waste.
Both Century Pacific Food (CNPF) and Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures (PIZZA) have marked their first year of being “100 percent plastic-neutral” last January 2020, following a push in 2019 to be “plastic-neutral” by 2020.
CNPF, one of the Philippines’ leading food companies, is the company behind household names Century Tuna, Argentina, 555, and Birch Tree.
Shakey’s Pizza is the Philippine leader in the pizza and full-service restaurant categories.
Both are among the country’s top consumer companies working to minimize their environmental footprint.
Being “plastic-neutral” means a company is able to recover the amount of plastic equal to what it uses and converts it into energy.
In 2019, both CNPF and PIZZA, alongside Republic Cement, agreed to co-process postconsumer plastic waste, converting these to energy as an alternative fuel in producing cement, replacing coal.
“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,” said CPG president Christopher Po.
Co-processing uses heat to destroy and recover any thermal or mineral properties of waste materials, so that these can be used in cement processing in a single, combined operation.
At a high temperature of 1,450°C, co-processed waste leaves zero residue.
Republic Cement is licensed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to use and dispose of qualified waste streams through cement kiln co-processing
The partnership with Republic Cement was meant to “balance out our environmental effects”, said Po.
He added, “Our brands represent quality, value-for-money products. We hope that they will eventually stand for responsible consumption as well.”
“With more Filipino companies embracing the plastic-neutrality concept, we are confident that we are making strides for a greener, stronger Republic. Ultimately, this is about preserving the environment for Filipinos for generations to come,” said Republic Cement president Nabil Francis.
