Leading up to World Environment Day 2021 on 5 June, Pick n Pay has launched its latest 100% reusable RPET bag featuring some of South Africa’s most beautiful and iconic trees, designed to bring visibility and awareness to the country’s important forest ecosystems and the preservation of these.
Partnering with NPO Greenpop for the latest limited-edition range, the bags are part of a collaborative series to help raise awareness and funding for worthy projects across the country. More recently, the ‘Save our Beach Huts’ RPET bag showcased the iconic beach huts in Muizenberg and St James, and profiled the project aimed at restoring the 36 beach huts that are a rich part of Cape Town’s heritage.
The new nature-focused limited-edition bags are available in selected Pick n Pay stores nationwide at a cost of R30 each. Proceeds from the sale of the bags will help raise funds for Greenpop, who will use this to plant, monitor, and maintain trees in its forest restoration project, Forests for Life, in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“We are acutely aware of the responsibility that we have to our communities and our environment and ensuring that these are sustainable into the future. We aim to make as much of a positive difference as possible and our 100% recycled and reusable bags are part of this work.
“The work that Greenpop is doing is commendable and through these new reusable bags, we have the opportunity to highlight this and celebrate it with customers,” says Andre Nel, head of sustainability at Pick n Pay.
Greenpop has, since 2010, planted over 139,000 trees and inspired 132,000 active citizens across South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. Their work aims to restore ecosystems and empower environmental stewards through forest restoration, urban greening, food gardening, and environmental awareness projects across Sub- Saharan Africa.
“We are so excited to have the opportunity to partner with PnP and get the word out about the importance of ecosystem restoration to a broader audience.”
The PnP Greenpop-collab RPET reusable bags feature images of two of South Africa’s iconic trees, the Baobab and the Outeniqua Yellowwood.
Local photographers, Scott Ramsay and Roger De La Harpe, captured the images after responding to the call to collaborate with Greenprop on the worthy cause.
Ramsays’s image features the iconic Baobab tree. While not a tree actively planted by Greenpop, the NGO felt it an important part of South Africa heritage and culture, and therefore necessary to feature. Roger De La Harpe’s image is of the Outeniqua Yellowwood trees of the Tsistikamma forest where Greenpop has active projects to assist with restoring forests damaged in the 2017 and 2018 fires.
Greepop’s Forest for Life project connects small-scale organisations across Sub-Saharan Africa with funding and support to plant trees, restore forest and woodland habitats, effectively manage critical catchment areas, and improve the lives of communities who rely on forest resources.
Pick n Pay’s reusable RPET bag rollout is just one of the retailer’s many community initiatives, which serve to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people and planet.
“This exciting collaboration with Greenpop is another way that we are giving back in different ways to local communities to uplift and contribute towards a sustainable future for all,” says Nel.
-ends-
