DuPont will highlight findings from its Virtuous Circle project at Interpack.

‘Virtuous Circle’ is active at schools in South Africa, with Amcor, FutureLife, EqualTrade4, Wildlands, RWPA Solutions and Wastebuster using multimaterial multilayer plastic packaging to boost education and childhood nutrition.

It started in October 2016, with the delivery of FutureLife Smart Food pouches to South African schools. Multilayer film pouches are used to provide drinking water and a nutritious meal in one package that can be easily transported over long distances to remote areas and requires no need for refrigeration. Since the launch of the project over half a million meals have been distributed to school children across South Africa.

Once used by the pupils, the FutureLife Smart food plastic pouches were collected by the project partner Wildlands and delivered to RWPA Solutions to be converted into durable and sturdy school desks.

The Virtuous Circle

Pupils collect recyclate as part of the Virtuous Circle scheme

Karam Hirji, Managing Director of RWPA Solutions, said: “The breakthrough from a technical perspective, was the ability to recycle multilayer film packaging waste in an economical way to create highly relevant recyclate products without compromising on performance. The desks not only have a practical purpose as classroom equipment; they also bring a symbolic value as they help children see the benefits of recycling first-hand and understand how the circular economy works.”

The headmaster of Aldinville Primary School in Stanger said: “The difference that has been made by this programme to our school is immense. We are teaching students coming from poor families who come to school hungry. Learners now get to eat breakfast here. We don’t have late comers and poor attendance issues anymore and enrolment seems to have improved. We hope that in the future this initiative will be extended to other schools. They need this type of programme to ensure their students are able to concentrate in the classroom, because without food, they cannot concentrate.”

The educational programme explains to school children the importance of good nutrition, the need to reduce food waste and conserve resources, the benefits of recycling, and the influence they have to reduce food waste and recycle more.

A roundtable discussion on the findings of the project and research outcomes will take place on May 8 in the Safe Food Pavilion at Interpack, and participants are invited to visit the DuPont and Virtuous Circle booths in the same location throughout the course of the show.