Acacia Recycling – Acacia Foundation

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A deficiency in environmental sustainability awareness, combined with an inefficient plastic waste handling mechanism, has seen millions of plastic bottles end up in landfills and water catchment areas. This has inadvertently clogged drainage channels in and around the city, contributing to the rampant floods we have witnessed lately. In addition, improperly discarded plastic bottles have ended up in lakes and rivers, causing dire harm to marine ecosystems.

Acacia Foundation has an effective solution to mitigate plastic waste pollution in Uganda through its various multi-pronged actions:

large scale recycling of plastic bottles;
community environmental sensitization programs;
agreements with institutions for organized collection of plastic waste.

TOWARDS A 100% RECYCLED PLASTIC SYSTEM

Used plastic bottles are delivered to our collection facility where they are pre-sorted. The bottles are then compacted into bales and stored in our warehouses.
The bales are then transported to Acacia’s recycling plant where they go through our hygienization chambers and afterwards, are sorted by colour (clear, blue, green, brown). Thereafter, they are processed into flakes. Subsequently, the flakes pass to the extrusion stage; the final product obtained is resin which is in granule form (rPET). The resin granules are stored in the warehouse waiting to be used in the production of new bottles.
Resin from recycled bottles is mixed with virgin resin (currently, 50% recycled PET + 50% virgin PET), and processed to obtain new, ready-to-use plastic bottles. Caps to go along with the bottles are also produced at our plant. The new bottles are packaged in bales awaiting domestic and export shipment.

Acacia Foundation, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, is the first of its kind in Uganda to implement the “rPET bottle-to-bottle recycling system” that is commonly used to make a variety of new plastic products, notably bottles and food containers.

Bottle-to-bottle recycling requires the highest standards in terms of decontamination and food safety in order to offer products of excellent quality.

We are certified by:

UNBS ISO 9001:2015
UNBS ISO 22000:2018.

Acacia has a circular-economy business model in place, which allows it to avoid the production of bottles from virgin plastic, in so doing, reducing the accumulation of plastic waste. It operates on the perennial cycle of packaging which is a sustainable model, vastly beneficial to society and the environment.

OUR VISION

Our vision is a world in which we protect nature effectively and use our resources responsibly, a circular economy for plastic in which it never becomes waste.

OUR MISSION

Acacia Foundation's mission is to directly manage the end-of-life of collected PET plastic bottles, making them part of a circular economy model.

BOTTLE TO BOTTLE

When every single PET plastic bottle reaches the end of life cycle, it can be recycled and reintroduced into the economic system, creating new value for consumers ,companies and safeguarding the environment

THE STEPS IN THE BOTTLE-TO-BOTTLE PRODUCTION PROCESS

Used plastic bottles are delivered to our collection facility where they are pre-sorted. The bottles are then compacted into bales and stored in our warehouses.
The bales are then transported to Acacia’s recycling plant where they go through our hygienization chambers and afterwards, are sorted by colour (clear, blue, green, brown). Thereafter, they are processed into flakes. Subsequently, the flakes pass to the extrusion stage; the final product obtained is resin which is in granule form (rPET). The resin granules are stored in the warehouse waiting to be used in the production of new bottles.
Resin from recycled bottles is mixed with virgin resin (currently, 50% recycled PET + 50% virgin PET), and processed to obtain new, ready-to-use plastic bottles. Caps to go along with the bottles are also produced at our plant. The new bottles are packaged in bales awaiting domestic and export shipment.

RECYCLED PET BOTTLES
HYGIENIC, SAFE AND UNBREAKABLE.

With our high tech machinery, new bottles are produced with a percentage of recycled PET (rPET), however, they also retain the same characteristics as virgin PET (VPET) bottles, both in terms of hygiene, safety and packaging strength.

Owing to new technologies available, Acacia is aiming at producing new bottles with 100% recycled PET plastic. This will allow the circular economy to be fully developed in Uganda.

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