Happy recycling day – What to do with your rubbish
It is National Recycling day. Learn a bit more about recycling and what you need to do.
It is recycling day and to celebrate we have information about the state of recycling in the city, such as what you can do to change it and the recycling process.
Recycling is harvesting waste for reusable substances to slow down the effect of waste to the environment.
One organisation determined to change the face of recycling in Pretoria is The Waste Group.
Their Bon Accord recycling facility is a sprawling marvel of modern recycling.
The company, at its Bon Accord facility, employs the five ‘R’ principle of rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle and remove, both at and after source.
Manager Pieter Kruger says: “This option is the highest cost saving in terms of total waste cost and has the highest rate of recovery of recyclables.”
Kruger said this plant created approximately 240 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs.
Recycling after source creates informal jobs and is relatively cheap but recovery of recyclable materials is only 3 to 5%.
He said recycling seems daunting and time-consuming but it is the way to a greener future.
For a nominal fee, The Waste Group can collect from your home but this requires you to split your refuse into wet and dry items into two separate bags then put it out for collection once a week.
The programme is currently running only in the east of Pretoria and will expand in the future.
Rekord reported that the Onderstepoort landfill site, one of only five waste disposal sites still operational in the Tshwane metro, has a lifespan of only about 12 months left .
It was also unlikely that permits would be obtained to establish new landfill sites in the metro and the city released a draft integrated waste management plan (IWMP) recently to deal with the estimated three million tons of waste disposed to landfill sites in Pretoria each year.
According to the document, existing landfill sites were rapidly reaching their operational capacity and there were huge financial and environmental problems to establishing new sites.
In December 2013 and January 2014, Tshwane went from having eight operational landfill sites to five when it closed Garstkloof, Temba and Kwaggasrand after they reached maximum capacity.
With no new landfill sites, the only option for residents is to recycle to reduce their carbon footprint.
To better understand how recycling works, watch this video:
Interesting facts on recycling:
– It takes 24 trees to make one ton of newspaper.
– One recycled can would save enough energy to power a television set for three hours.
– 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared to making it from raw materials.
– A 10 000 ton landfill creates six jobs, recycling the same amount creates 36 jobs.
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