A carbon-busting action plan has been launched by one of the Middle East's leading drinks firms as it aims to slash its footprint.
UAE-based Masafi has produced long-term initiatives that it hopes will prove that companies can still do their bit for the environment without being hit in the pocket.
Plant manager Mohammed Ussman said: "Our carbon action plan is aimed at creating an effective environmental reporting scheme to demonstrate our responsibility to the environment.
Our consumers will actually be helping the environment by taking carbon out of the atmosphere with every purchase."
The company is offering a bottle recycling service for households who guzzle their way through four-gallon containers of water while for businesses, schools and government departments, the recycling scheme extends to all bottles.
Thousands of tonnes of plastic have been given a new lease of life through the project and a growing number of supporters are signing up.
Ussman said: "The redemption rate for the four-gallon bottles has gone up by 30 per cent, which reflects how our consumers are becoming more environmentally aware and are disposing of them responsibly giving it back to our sales team so that they can send it back to the factory for recycling."
But the action plan is also focused on what Masafi can do in-house.
Energy efficient non-CFC chillers have been installed at its manufacturing plant to cut energy costs as well as consumption.
Along with the introduction of a 100 per cent recyclable box for certain product lines, an eco-friendly shrink-wrap for others and the abolition of aluminium in its lids, the firm has also shifted the focus of its recycling procedure.
Previously, its processed plastic was sold to dealers who exported it to China.
But Masafi has signed a deal with Fujairah-based Horizon Technologies who will take on the material itself.
© 7Days 2010
