DA councillor San-Mari Wait’s campaign for at-home recycling received a surprising boost during the recent Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Eco-Industrial Zone Improvement Conference, with one of the town’s top CEOs telling conference goers to abandon the take, make and dispose mentality, and embark on a new path to manufacturing to stimulate a circular economy.

Columbus already manufactures more than 90% of its steel from recycled materials.

Columbus Stainless CEO Johan Strydom has his head screwed on right.

Likewise, Wait has separated her own household refuse in a test run by placing non-recyclables into a black bag at the bottom of her green wheelie bin and recyclables into a see-through trash bag on top of the black bag for recyclers.

“It works!” she said, adding that since she’s been separating her trash like this, she’s never had a single instance where she had to clean up after recyclers, unlike other residents throughout Middelburg.

Recyclers are everywhere, even at the landfill, despite it being illegal.

Wait said separate see-through bags aren’t needed, but that all glass, paper and plastic should be placed together in the see-through bag.

The bags, she said, cost about the same as black bags at local retailers.

Though Wait’s focus is on single households, Strydom’s vision is much bigger.

Columbus is already following a circular economic approach to manufacturing, according to Strydom.

He told conference goers that they should design their own, functional regenerative systems, by creating products that are durable, repairable and recyclable from the very start.

He urged industry leaders to keep materials and products in use, extending product life through reuse, repair, refurbishment, and remanufacturing.

A third tenet is to regenerate natural systems by returning biological materials safely to the earth to enrich the soil and support new ecosystems.

An example of a working model, according to Strydom, is the stainless steel industry, which produces a 100% recyclable product with no loss of quality.

Other advantages for Columbus include a lesser need for virgin mining and up to 75% lower energy costs.

A policy and general mental change is, however, crucial to achieve optimum results.

Despite raw materials still being utilised at a core minimum, Columbus produces more than 90% of its products from recycled materials.

Scrap metals offset Columbus’ dependence on raw materials and are very cost-effective.

Multi-process usage approaches should include the harvesting of rainwater, alongside vapour recompression technology, while waste is processed from slag into lime, generating direct revenue while eliminating landfill disposal.

Effluent is converted into saleable calcium nitrate with no disposal of liquid waste.

According to Strydom’s roadmap for a circular South Africa, starting at home, like in Wait’s case, starts with awareness of the benefits in adopting such an approach, a mind shift supported by government’s concise government policy with clear targets and investment, and support and enablement of green-tech startups, as well as skills development to sustainably bolster a circular economy.

Strydom said that recycling remains a low-hanging fruit with major benefits.

Wait, meanwhile, have been encouraging residents on her ward WhatsApp-group, and other community WhatsApp-groups, to follow her example

• The conference culminated with the signing of a R5b local investment deal between Hyundai and Nkangala Energy to establish a local gas plant in town.