March 22, 2021. Dow, the world’s leading chemical and scientific materials company, has awarded the Center for Regenerative Design and Collaboration South Africa (CRDC SA) the Dow Business Impact Fund Award, worth US$100 000. The Dow Business Impact Fund is a competitive grant program intended to support business solutions that make a large-scale impact in collaboration with non-profit organizations.
The Impact Award is a recognition of CRDC’s positive impact on the environment and on the communities in which it operates. Prior to awarding the funding, Dow monitored CRDC’s progress, the viability of its proprietary RESIN8 product, its collection strategy, and its requisite scalability. To date, CRDC’s first plant in South Africa has repurposed 20 over tons of plastic that would have been destined for landfills into RESIN8, used for construction, and has employed scores of people.
“CRDC South Africa has made great headway with the various industries it needs to collaborate with – namely, the consumer plastic producers and plastic waste collectors, the off-takers (the construction industry) and the government. At Dow, we strongly believe that plastic is too valuable a resource to be thrown away or lost to landfill, so it is imperative to help get this important sustainable product to market. We are delighted to be collaborating with other partners to ensure RESIN8™ is a driver for good in South Africa, on the African continent and indeed, throughout the world.” remarked Dow Africa Sustainability and Advocacy Manager Adwoa Coleman.
The plan is for CRDC SA to have 21 RESIN8™ plants in South Africa, operating at full capacity, within five years. The plants will use 250 000 tons of plastic waste every year – plastic waste that would otherwise have gone to landfills.
CRDC Global was founded in Costa Rica and Dow was impressed by not only the company’s achievements in that country, including a substantial housing project, but also the company’s global vision for establishing RESIN8™ plants around the world. Dow Costa Rica New Business Developer, Jose Barquero said: “The fact that such a revolutionary product could seriously eliminate the world’s plastic waste and that it was born in Costa Rica was important, given Costa Rica’s reputation for adopting and leading sustainable and ecological policies and initiatives. We believe RESIN8™ is the key to tackling our global plastic waste problem and we want to give a strong signal to the world about the importance of scaling the production of RESIN8™. We are very proud that CRDC is now able to accelerate its roll-out in South Africa.”
