Holcim Philippines and natural personal and home care social enterprise brand Human Nature have entered into a partnership for sustainable waste management. The building solution company will use used plastic packaging from Human Nature to produce alternative fuel that will be used in cement manufacturing.
Under this partnership, Human Nature customers may turn over their dry, empty, and clean product bottles to the brand’s select stores across Metro Manila through the ‘Balik Bote’ project. Those used plastic bottles will then be delivered to Holcim’s facility in Norzagaray, Bulacan, where the materials will be shredded by Geocycle, the company’s partner waste management unit. The pre-processed materials will be used as an alternative fuel and raw materials for cement manufacturing using co-processing technology.
“We are proud to be a partner of Human Nature, a company that is serious in its commitment to have a positive social impact and be respectful of nature,” said Geocycle Vice President Frederic Vallat. “We share the same commitments at Holcim Philippines and are glad to help in their efforts to address the waste management challenge in the country.”
‘Balik Bote’ is part of Human Nature’s thrust to help lessen wastes ending up in landfills. The company also follows pro-environment practices like ensuring that raw materials are naturally derived, processed with less energy and waste, and deprived of harmful chemicals toxic to humans and the environment. It is also among the pioneers of safe, sustainable, and accessible refilling stations for home care products that significantly lower plastic waste.
“We hope many other companies will likewise discover the benefits of extending our responsibility not just to the products that we make but also the waste we generate,” said Human Nature President Anna Meloto-Wilk.
For its part, the use of alternative fuels along with the use of raw materials using co-processing technology is a key driver of Holcim Philippines’ sustainability performance. Co-processing enables the company to produce cement with a lower carbon footprint, reduce its consumption of non-renewable resources, and provide partners a sustainable alternative for managing their wastes. Qualified waste materials are pre-processed as an alternative fuel and fed into the high-temperature kilns along with other traditional fuels to produce cement. The process transforms wastes into alternative fuel and converts these into energy for cement production.