Octal pioneers pet bottle recycling program with Salalah’s British School

OCTAL, one of the largest PET producers in the world and a global leader in the packaging industry, recently kicked-off the first-of-its-kind PET water bottle recycling program at the British School Salalah. PET bottles are collected at designated sites on the school campus and delivered to OCTAL’s PET Complex in the Salalah Free Zone for recycling. As part of the program launch, the school children were educated on environmental issues, the importance and benefits of recycling in addition to practical ways they can contribute to preserving the environment. 

“Children have a powerful influence over recycling habits of households and they have the perfect combination of wonder and imagination to mold eco-friendly lifelong habits that will result in reducing post-consumer PET waste,” said Neil Skeffington, Process Development Manager at OCTAL. “We have always placed environmental sustainability at the forefront of our operations as a standard business practice. By championing PET recycling in the Sultanate, out ultimate aim is to establish a recycling culture in Oman, first beginning with the communities where we operate.” 

Skeffington went on to say that the launch of the program with the British School Salalah is only the beginning and plans are currently underway to expand the program to other schools and organizations in the Governorate of Dhofar. The program will also be extended to other PET bottles such as juice and milk. 

Norah O’Neill, Principal of the British School Salalah said, “From September 2012, the British School Salalah will be focusing on becoming an eco-friendly school. The presentation given to the children by representatives from OCTAL has been a great introduction to this endeavour. The children were introduced to lots of different ways they can help the environment and how each little thing they accomplish can make a big difference. OCTAL has certainly provided us with lots of ideas for the coming year.”

As an organization that uses innovation and technology to drive sustainability and set critical global industry benchmarks in efficient natural resource management, OCTAL strives to recycle wherever possible to minimize impact of its day to day operations. The company has successfully implemented a number of recycling systems for materials such as wooden pallets, jumbo bags used to transport PET resin, ink toners for printers and the stock of PET bottles used by employees on site. 

OCTAL’s unique-to-the-world manufacturing facility that produces PET resin and PET sheet with the lowest carbon footprint in the world also has 20,000 tons of capacity to produce rPET, and the infrastructure to expand rPET production in line with customer demand. OCTAL’s integrated manufacturing facility uses all of its internally-generated side-trim and offers customers recycling of the skeletal waste generated during the thermoforming process.