Recycle your used goods
Farrarmere resident Samantha Choles keeps an ice cream tub for tea bags, vegetable and fruit peels and eggshells that she puts in her worm farm in her backyard, which she uses as fertiliser.
According to the public relations officer for the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa, eight per cent of businesses in South Africa recycle their paper and cardboard.
This is due to businesses in South Africa thinking they are completely paperless.
“What about the ultra-protective cardboard box that brought in your new computer equipment?” she said.
Choles lists the following as recyclable and non-recyclable materials.
Recyclable materials:
Magazines and brochures, including glossy varieties, newspapers, office and shredded paper, envelopes and boxes.
Non-recyclable materials:
Wet or dirty paper and cardboard, used paper plates, disposable nappies, tissues and toilet paper.
Choles gave three reasons why people should recycle.
• Landfill space:
A ton of recycled paper can save up to three cubic metres of landfill space and is used to make new paper products that we use every day.
• Cleaner air:
Paper buried in a landfill after mixing with other waste will degrade and release gases such as methane, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
• Job creation:
Big and small companies, as well as informal collectors, make money (and employ people) through the recovery and processing of clean, quality recyclable paper.
Choles has been recycling for about 20 years.
She remembers her mom, Lyndon Hunt, recycling paper when she was still a child.
“I’ve always been an environmentally conscious person,” she said.
Choles has a system in place to recycle the waste in her household.
“I believe waste can be reused to make something else,” she said.
She has three bins she uses to separate various products.
One is for wet waste, one is for glass, tins and plastic and one for juice boxes and milk cartons.
In addition to that, she has a box in the kitchen for paper.
Choles has one big wheelie bin where the rubbish gets collected every two weeks.
She has a dustbin for paper, which gets collected weekly by Mpact.
Also read: Recycling plant in Actonville causes concern for residents
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