Electrolux South Africa, a leading floor care and home appliance manufacturer, has announced the launch of the South African ‘Vac from the Sea’ project. The new project, which forms part of the company´s extensive sustainability efforts, will see Electrolux partner with an ocean conservation and community design partner to create a beautiful, eco-friendly vacuum cleaner made from recycled plastic gathered from our South African coastline.
Electrolux South Africa General Manager Stuart Spencer says the Vac from the Sea project was run internationally in 2010 to great acclaim. “Plastic waste from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Seas was collected and used to design five stunning eco-friendly vacuum cleaners. We are very excited to launch this exciting initiative in South Africa, especially since Cape Town enjoys the benefit of two of the world´s largest oceans.”
The Vac from the Sea project was created by Electrolux to raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans and to meet the need for good-quality recycled plastic required for the production of sustainable home appliances. “There are enormous islands of floating plastic in our oceans, but on land we face a scarcity of recyclable plastic. As one of the world´s largest appliance manufacturers we need to close this gap in order for us to develop more sustainable appliances,” Spencer explains. “Each Vac from the Sea is purely a demo model that illustrates our commitment to finding sustainable business solutions to our current environmental challenges, particularly as it relates to plastic pollution in our oceans.“
As a company, Electrolux places a great deal of importance on its sustainability initiatives and is regularly awarded for its efforts. Electrolux was the leader in the Durable Household Products category in the most recent Dow Jones Sustainability Index and has made sustainability a key component of its annual report. “In 2010, our green product range accounted for 22% of the total units sold and generated 35% of our gross profit worldwide,” says Spencer. “Our Green Range of vacuum cleaners is manufactured from up to 70% post-consumer recycled plastic, and we have an ambition to one day make that 100%.”
Electrolux has announced that Plastics SA, the representative body for the plastics industry of South Africa, will be its conservation partner for the local Vac from the Sea project. Plastics SA is mandated to enable a vibrant and sustainable plastics industry in South Africa, and spearheads a number of initiatives each year that aims to minimise waste by facilitating the reuse and recycling of post-consumer plastics and ensuring that the energy embedded in plastics is recovered.
The project will run until November, when the SA designed vacuum cleaner will be revealed alongside all five international Vacs from the Sea.
Watch the below clip which showcases the waste collected by the Vac from the Sea project… shocking that so much trash ends up in the world´s oceans.
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