Recycling

THE AVERAGE amount of waste generated by a single South African in just one year is about 250kg.

This year, don’t be complacent about recycling.

You’re probably asking yourself: why should I bother to recycle when my neighbour can’t even be bothered to pick up his cigarette butts?

Well, let’s look at the facts: besides global warming, the human population is using up the Earth’s resources at an alarming rate. Environmental analysts say we’ve already used up 2015’s supply of our planet’s resources. That’s a shocking observation estimated by the Global Footprint Network (GFN).

The GFN then goes on to explain that human consumption first began to exceed the Earth’s capacity in the early 1970s – the overshoot day has been falling steadily ever since.

Apart from paper and cardboard – which many of us have been recycling for years – it can seem pretty difficult to get information about what you can recycle and how you go about doing it. But it’s not.

One of the most useful guides I found was at

It’s compiled by founder Laura Grant and is a free, simple How To on recycling for beginners.

“We need to look after what we’ve got. And that means living less wasteful lifestyles, and learning that we can no longer just use things once and throw them away into a landfill site.

“We need to learn the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle,” Grant notes. Recycling in your home starts as early as the trip to the supermarket. Think carefully when shopping for household items on how they can be recycled. Take into consideration what materials can be recycled like paper, plastic, metal and RECYCLING a single plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for four hours. A plastic beverage bottle takes 450 years to decompose. Glass and plastic take the longest to decompose but are completely recyclable. According to a 2010 study, only 3.3% of the country’s population regularly recycled household waste. glass. And when in doubt, just don’t buy it.

We live in a country that supports various recycling initiatives, and one of those are products displaying eco-friendly labels on the packaging, so be mindful when next out shopping. Treevolution’s handy beginner’s guide to recycling in SA lists the essentials of what can and cannot be recycled: According to the National Recycling Forum (NRF), more than 2 billion steel beverage cans are used every year in SA with 72% of them being recovered. Those that are collected are then melted down to make new steel cans.

Collect-a-Can accepts cool drink and beer cans, aerosol and paint cans as well as aluminium cans. Just remember all cans must be empty on collection. All glass bottles and jars are 100% recyclable and you can also do your part by reusing them as storage containers. You can also take cool drink bottles back to the shop for a “return” deposit. Many neighbourhoods have glass banks located near shopping areas – to find a glass bank near you, SMS “Glass” and the name of your suburb to 32310. Remove corks and lids Rinse to remove residue No need to separate different colours Most paper can be recycled and may be collected from your home, provided they are in the correct waste paper bags. But to do your part for the environment make sure the paper you buy is either recycled or FSC certified. The Forest Stewardship Council (fsc.org) is USEFUL INFO Collect-a-Can: The Glass Recycling Company: 0861 2 GLASS (45277) or find your closest glass bank MPact Recycling: 0800 022 112 a not-for-profit alliance between NGOs, government, and paper and timber players from around the world.

Use a separate reusable container for paper waste

Keep your waste paper clean and dry

Find out from your local recycler what paper grades should be kept separate from the rest These are fruit juice and milk containers that look like they’re made from paper but are lined with aluminum foil and plastic. Tetrapak’s recycling facility in Germiston recycles the packaging into roof tiles, furniture and stationary.

Many schools do collections. Unfortunately plastic is much more difficult to recycle than glass or paper, and because of this, most of SA’s plastic goes to landfill sites or makes it way into the ocean. Plastics do not biodegrade, and just get broken down into increasingly smaller particles – known as photodegradation. The good news is that there are plastic packaging that can be recycled like ice cream containers, plastic bags and fabric softener bottles.

Here are the kinds of plastic you may come across:

used mainly for bottled water and soft drinks

milk bottles, cleaning products and cosmetics

described as a difficult plastic, in many cases replaced with PET

rubbish bags, frozen vegetable bags

ice cream tubs, straws and lunch boxes

two types used in meat trays, yoghurt tubs

PET: HDPE: PVC: LDPE: PP: PS:

Doing your bit for the environment starts with the small stuff. Happy recycling!