Recycling giant loses footprint
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on yet another business in town - Interwaste in George is closing its doors. According to Kate Stubbs, the business development director at Interwaste, the global recycling market was already experiencing tough times, with no prospect of a positive change in the near future. "We have had to take very tough business decisions that would certainly not have been made under different circumstances," said Stubbs. Interwaste will be closing most of their services out of the George depot, effective as of mid-August. "We are devastated to have to make this call, which will very sadly result in the loss of jobs. All affected staff have already been notified and consulted around this and we are working with them to support them in every way possible," said Stubbs.
Blue bags
Interwaste has terminated its service agreement for the collection and management of the blue bags project, effective as of 31 July. Stubbs said this was another extremely difficult business decision.
"We took all reasonable steps to ensure a smooth transition in handing over the services back to the George Municipality and provided the municipality with 60 days' notice, as opposed to the contractual 30 days, to ensure we gave them time to ramp up capacity to manage this project themselves," said Stubbs. Municipal spokesperson Chantel Edwards-Klose said the municipality plans to run recycling in-house. "The contract is scheduled to terminate 31 July, however a meeting has been scheduled to discuss the possibility of extending their contract with one month. The extension will enable the municipality to properly plan the taking over of the recycling," said Edwards-Klose. Stubbs applauded the municipality for a "phenomenal job" at raising awareness of and driving sustainability around recycling.
Regional landfill site
Interwaste is consulting with the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) regarding the future of the regional landfill site project, which involves several B-municipalities in the district. "... due to the legal parameters and sensitivities, we are unable to provide further comment on this at this stage," said Stubbs.
An update on the project was included in the latest agenda (27 July) of the GRDM, as part of their Corporate Plan for 2020/2021. It reads as follows: "Discussions between the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), GRDM and the Service Provider (Interwaste) took place recently to try to resolve the funding and construction of the site. Positive feedback was received recently that the Service Provider will continue with the publicprivate partnership (PPP) agreement and more discussions will take place to finalise the matter."