OPINION: Recycling is hard, but we gotta start somewhere

ONLY 7.5% of South Africans make the effort to recycle, and 90% of waste ultimately makes its way to a landfill site.

These are the starting statistics outlined by the South African Recycling Organisation.

However, these statistics are not surprising to me – someone who has been recycling* for approximately two years.

You see, it’s not an easy task.

My road in La Lucia, Durban almost never receives orange recycling bags, so I opt to drop mine off at the Malacca Road refuse site, which has a little recycling corner.

And while its not far out of the way during my commute to work, the drive there and the site itself are hazards.

With the informal settlement nearby, there is always rubbish lying in the road and at the entrance to the refuse site. Getting a flat tyre is always a major concern.

So, I hoard my recyclables until I absolutely HAVE to go and drop them off – which means my car boot is always full of paper, plastic bottles and cans.

Sadly, the frustration is not limited to my road, nor to Durban or even KwaZulu-Natal.

But we cannot, as a nation, stick our hands in our pockets and not take action, just because it is inconvenient.

It’s like exercise. It sucks in the beginning, but if we do not start, we won’t get any better – or healthier, for that matter.

Yes, government intervention is fundamental to facilitate recycling. However, I believe, we as consumers can also drive demand by purchasing recycled products (or with recycled packaging), supporting eco-friendly businesses, and enduring some of the inconvenience by recycling so that we can show the government and respective industries that it can be lucrative for them to buy in to recycling.

* My first priority is always to reduce purchasing any plastic, then to reuse the plastic, and then when I cannot avoid either, I recycle the plastic.