Dole uses different types of plastic material throughout its various operations in Latin America and as such it is the Company’s policy is to recycle as much of its plastic waste as possible.
Dole’s use of plastic material includes, plastic bags to protect banana bunches in the field and plastic trimmings. Dole collects and classifies plastic from its farms, places it in collection yards, and stores the plastic until it can be baled and later sent to recycling plants.
Colombia
Recicla is a plastic recycling microfinance company, partially funded by Dole which is owned and operated by 60 mostly single mothers and their dependents.
Initiated in Colombia in 2003, Recicla produces plastic flakes to later sell to a plastic company based in Cartagena City, which mixes this material with virgin resin to produce other plastic products.
The women forming the Recicla cooperative have been duly trained in small business management and are readily able to deal with buyers and banana producers to continuously improve their project. In addition to its contribution to environmental protection through their recycling efforts, Recicla has built a water recirculation plant that allows them to reuse the water used to clean plastic waste for up to 2 to 3 weeks.
In addition to RECICLA, Dole Colombia (Tecbaco) started implementing other plastic recycling programs in 1998. Some examples of these other programs include the reuse of plastic field bags and plastic ribbons for stem identification.
Furthermore, Tecbaco has contacted Fundeban (the Foundation for the Development of the Banana Zone) to plan for a similar venture as Recicla in the Guajira zone where the Company now operates an organic banana farm.
Ecuador
In 2006, UBESA recycled over 300 tons of plastics!
Since 1992, Dole (UBESA) has been actively building plastic collection centers in the South, Guayas and Los Rios zones and has provided training sessions to teach employees how to classify and collect plastic for recycling.
Starting in 1994 plastic has been packed at the collection centers and later transported by third parties to their recycling facilities. Presently, most plastic is being collected at the farms by recyclers' trucks, stimulated by price increments for plastic in the marketplace.
The total amount of plastic recycled by UBESA is estimated to be between 4 and 8 tons per week. Plastics coming from UBESA are turned into corner boards, which on average may contain up to 80% recycled plastic material.
Costa Rica
All plastic used in Dole owned and independent producer farms in Costa Rica is collected and recycled. All of the Company’s field bags are collected and recycled by Recyplast.
Recyplast was founded in 1994 and is still run by its three founding members: Dole, Del Monte and Yanber, S.A., a Costa Rican plastics industry company. Recyplast manufactures and sells corner boards and is made up of approximately 100 employees.
Today, to meet the heavy demand that the Company has for raw material, some plastic from other sources such as domestic and other industries is also being recycled.
The tonnage of plastic recycled by Recyplast has increased from 657 tons in1995 to over 1,500 tons in 2006! Recyplast uses twine and banana bags as a raw material for the production of plastic corner boards. The other companies use the twine plastic to produce roof shingles and pellets.
Honduras
An average 1,106 tons of linear low density, high density, and polypropylene plastics are recycled each year!
The recycled plastic is mainly used to make plastic rails which replace wooden rails for train tracks.
The future plans for the project are to establish collection points in all the compounds where our employees and their families live. In exchange for the setting up of these collection points, the current plastic buyer is considering donating academic materials for the local schools.