Alibaba’s RT mart launches bottle recycling initiative in China

Empty plastic bottles will be transformed into table tennis tables.

Alibaba’s hypermarket chain RT-Mart has joined hands with American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble to launch a recycling-plastic-bottle initiative across China’s ten main cities, the e-commerce giant said in a press release.

Consumers can return empty plastic bottles at nearly 100 RT-Mart stores across China, where they will be sent to a recycling depot to be transformed into table tennis tables, Alibaba said.

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These tables will become China’s first patch of sports equipment coming from recycled plastics, an RT-Mart spokesperson said in a statement. Consumers who participate by returning their empty bottles will be awarded gifts and vouchers.

Alibaba said it acquired the Taiwanese chain of hypermarkets, which combine digital elements in a traditional supermarket setting, in 2018.