NAIROBI, May 31 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese company said Friday it will soon open a second plant at the cost of 600 million shillings (6 million U.S. dollars) at Kenya's port city of Mombasa to cope with increasing demand for its products.
Luo Ming, director of Weeco Recycling Company, said the firm entered into the Kenyan market to help provide a lasting solution to environmental degradation posed by post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET bottles).
"I will be in Mombasa next week to receive the machinery that we have imported from China for the new plant which will be located in the town," Luo told Xinhua during an interview in Nairobi.
She said the new plant will complement the one located at Athi River, in the outskirts of Nairobi that recycles more than 2,000 tons of PET bottles every three months, adding that as soon as the new plant begins operations, they will be doing 6,000 tons over the same period.
Weeco collects and recycles plastic bottles into pellets which are later converted into fiber and polyester.
Luo spoke in the backdrop of a partnership between Kenya PET Recycling Company Limited (PETCO Kenya) which is an industry body mandated with the responsibility of regulating the management of post-consumer PET packaging in the country, and a local supermarket chain that has set drop-off points at its branches where consumers can deposit used bottles that will be collected by the recycling firm.
Joyce Gachugi-Waweru, country director of PETCO Kenya, said the company pays Weeco 5 shillings (0.05 dollars) per kilogram recycled as subsidy to the Chinese company.
John Waithaka, chairman of PETCO Kenya, said that Weeco is already playing a key role in the recycling of post-consumer PET packaging in the country, especially at a time that plastic waste has become a global challenge.
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