‘Green desks’ for schools in need
PUPILS at an uMlazi primary school, who had to make do with sharing one desk between three children at a time, were recently provided with hundreds of “green desks” made from recycled waste.
Saphinda Primary School in uMlazi is one of two recipients of 250 desks through a partnership between Unilever and The Wildlands Conservation Trust. The other school was Mochochonono Primary School in Soweto.
Unilever said it embraced innovative and groundbreaking technology to transform multi-layered, previously unrecyclable waste into useful products such as school desks.
Unilever sustainability partnerships manager Preola Adam said according to recent reports just 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally.
“One third ends up in the natural environment and, if current trends continue, by 2050 oceans could contain more plastics than fish, by weight,” Adam said.
“It is a terrifying vision for our future and we need to work together on programmes, such as ‘The Renewed Project’, to better manage the waste we produce and to ensure that it does not become a reality,” Adam said.
Adam said Unilever had committed to ensuring that all its plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
“We hope that our commitment will encourage others in the industry to make progress towards ensuring that all plastic packaging is fully recyclable and recycled.”
Unilever’s partnership with Wildlands dates back to 2004 with various ‘waste-preneur’ projects supported to raise awareness and encourage recycling.
Wildlands Conservation Trust director in partnerships, marketing and events Louise Duys said that until now multi-layered, multi-film materials used to package and increase the lifespan of products have not been recyclable and have been incinerated or ended up in landfill sites, placing strain on the environment.
“Wildlands, together with Rural Waste Poverty Alleviation, has developed a ground-breaking solution which, through a combination of grinding and extrusion, upcycles these post-consumer, multi-layered, multi-film materials into planks which are then assembled into school desks. With a shortage of more than 300 000 school desks in South Africa, these desks will help us close the loop by cleaning the communities where we work and supporting education,” Duys said.
She said the distribution of 500 green desks had removed 20 000kg of waste from landfill sites.
Saphinda principal Thenjiwe Zulu said the school experienced numerous struggles because many pupils came from families that relied on social grants and couldn’t afford school fees.
“The Renewed Project benefits the school immensely as previously a desk would be shared among three learners at a time, affecting the overall productivity of the child and the school at large, especially during exams,” Zulu said.