Green grants aim to clean up, recycle
LEADING SA environmental NPO, Wildtrust, has partnered with multinational corporation, the Dow Chemical Company, to roll out a grant assistance programme known as the Dow Impact Fund.
It is aimed at delivering a “circular economy”,enabling a cleaner environment through recycling, job creation and social wellbeing.
The Dow Chemical Company drives innovations that extract value from material, polymer, chemical and biological science to address many of the globe’s most challenging problems.
Wildtrust chief executive Andrew Venter said to address unemployment and poor waste management, the partnership with Dow will support the expansion of the Wildtrust’s Recycling Village model. It entails setting up collection points in shopping malls’ parking lots, enabling the potential collection of over 1 200 000kg of recyclable waste from about 10 000 local homes.
The project will also see the underwriting of a sustainable clean-up operation of the Durban harbour.
It will ensure the ongoing removal of the waste that accrues in the harbour, through the employment of a dedicated team of local community members as part of the Wildoceans’ Blue Crew, a team of local female entrepreneurs who collect waste accumulation along the coastline.
This will enable the collection of over 100 000kg of recyclable waste from the port, including 60 000kg of plastic material that would otherwise end up in the ocean.
“This impactful partnership creates a space to achieve sustainability, and addresses South Africa’s waste and unemployment challenges,” Venter said.
The project will also test the ability to blend various combinations of multi-material, multi-layer and other unrecyclable plastic into a recyclate to be beneficiated into end-use applications like green desks, building materials and diesel, based at the Wildlands’ Midmar recycling depot.
Through the Wildtrust School’s Recycling Programme, pupils will be educated about the circular economy with the aim of reaching 25 000 of them across 50 schools. |