The red herring of recycling

Landfills are filling up faster than ever despite the trend to carry an Ecomug and bamboo straw and diligently rinse and sort your recyclables.

Wildlands’ recycling senior manager Hanno Langenhoven said society is going about reducing the amount of waste being sent to landfills the wrong way.

“Recycling is a red herring – reduction is key. Recycling does not solve the problem, it is an interim solution at best. Long term we have to make the choice to have less and rely less on convenient packaging,” said Langenhoven, who is based inland from Westbrook.

He said taking responsibility for the plastic on the beaches and in the ocean is the first step.

“We need to re-establish the connection that it is my waste that is lying on the beach.”

Similarly, Ethekwini waste materials recovery industry development cluster managing director Chris Whyte said we need to look at the hierarchy of the five R’s.

“Start with Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle. There is a sixth R if we then look at Recover which relates to the final recovery of energy from recyclables rather than sending to landfill,” said Whyte, who was involved in the Orange Bag project, a recycling initiative for paper and plastic which has been put on hold for the moment.

“Even at the height of the Orange Bag project the total recyclables amounted to only 0.6 percent of the city’s waste. The impact on landfills is virtually negligible as the increasing rate of recycling is hardly keeping up with the annual growth in waste volumes estimated at an increase of at least 2.5 percent per year.”

One of the main reasons why recycling is not working is the lack of enforcement, according to Dolphin Coast Waste Management CEO Sasha Marot.

“Unlike London, for example, where you are fined for not recycling, South Africa relies on people’s moral decision to recycle,” said Marot.

Dolphin Coast Waste processes several thousand tons of waste from KwaDukuza monthly, which is steadily on the increase as the area keeps growing and developing.

“Going into full-blown recycling mode comes with massive costs which is not currently viable. The cheapest form of recycling starts at the source, meaning your home or workplace. Our initiative is to reduce the tonnage to landfill by supporting local NGO’s such as Litter4Tokens and SMME’s by absorbing their costs of sorting, bailing and logistics.

“We are starting small and building up working with a staggered approach focusing on paper and plastic first.”

He said they will slowly grow the area they cover adding one street at a time.

“We also offer training to businesses who want to start recycling. The key is for everyone to start in their own space.”

Interestingly, he said while the most recycling on the Dolphin Coast comes from the wealthy areas, the poorer areas are leading with their reusing of recyclables.

“A two litre Coke bottle, for example, will be used 15 to 20 times in an underprivileged area. This habit of reusing is the best initiative to reduce waste to landfill.”

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