National Recycling Day on 17 September works to raise awareness about the issue, and to encourage and galvanise people to take action. However a focus on recycling shouldn’t be confined to just one day a year. Recycling can be a part of everyday life, and a little effort goes a long way in making a real difference. “We encourage people to take the time to learn what materials can be recycled, as many different forms of packaging are actually recycled right here in South Africa,” says John Hunt, Managing Director at Mpact Recycling that has a national footprint.
Creating jobs
The benefits of recycling are not only to ensure that waste doesn’t go to landfill, benefitting the environment, but it also creates jobs – essential in an economy such as South Africa’s where unemployment rates continue to rise at an alarming rate. It is not just about recycling, but rebuilding too.
According to a report by the CSIR, waste in South Africa has contributed R8.2 billion worth of resources into the South African economy. The CSIR further estimates that the recycling industry provides income opportunities for between 60 000 to 90 000 waste pickers alone. Recycling is not just a matter of recovering recyclable material, it’s a total economic system.
What can you do?
“It’s important to also know the difference between recyclable materials and those that are biodegradable or compostable,” he says. “Many people justify dumping the latter since the perception is that it will simply disappear and break down into natural elements. This isn’t always the case, and in many instances, it can also contaminate the recycling waste stream.”
There are a number of ways for people to get involved and become part of this circular economy. Households separating their own recyclables from everyday refuse is the most efficient. Giving these recyclables to your local collector, or dropping them off at your local shopping centre is an option. There are also pick-up programmes via schools, communities and offices which not only raise recycling awareness and create income opportunities for these institutions, but push recycling levels to new heights.
A good example of how the circular economy operates within Mpact can be demonstrated by one of the most frequently used packaging material in the world: cardboard. It begins with separation at home or at the office, after the contents have been consumed. The used cardboard is then collected by a collector or dropped off at a school, community, shopping centre or buy-back centre. From here, the cardboard box (along with other boxes) would make its way to any of Mpact’s 14 recycling branches countrywide, where it is baled. The branches then deliver the baled cardboard to the Mpact paper mills located in Springs, Felixton and Piet Retief where it is then made into new paper. This paper is sent to any of the 9 Mpact Corrugated branches and made into new corrugated boxes. The packaged boxes are then sold to manufacturers who package the goods for wholesalers and retailers. The boxes are then unpacked by the retailers and get collected for recycling. The box of cereal or six pack of milk that the consumer buys at the retailer ends up back in the household or office again, and this too gets collected or delivered for recycling, and the cycle continues.
“It is really important that people keep their recyclables clean, which means keeping them out of the normal bin and away from wet waste. When they are dirty, or contaminated with food or other waste, often they cannot be recycled,” says Hunt. “The sooner the waste gets into the recycling stream, the better.”
“When recycled properly as part of the circular economy, it not only benefits the environment, but people’s livelihoods too,” says Hunt. “On this National Recycling Day, let’s invest in a better South Africa together.”
About recycling: a guide to jargon
There is so much jargon that surrounds recycling that many people find confusing and misleading. However, once this jargon is understood, it is easier to work out how recycling can be part of everyday lives.
- Recycling: the mechanical or chemical process of converting waste into reusable material.
- Separation-at-source: The act of separating out recyclables such as cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, paper, cans etc. from everyday refuse that would otherwise go into a rubbish bin, and ultimately destined for landfill.
- Re-purposing: When the consumer reuses the packaging within the home environment for a new application, e.g. storing grains in a tub previously used to package ice-cream.
- Upcycling: similar to re-purposing except that the value of the product is added to by it being made into something else, such as using straws, newspapers and sweet wrappers to make a kite.
- Recycled: The product has been collected, baled and recycled.
- Circular economy: The opposite of a linear economy, which indicates that waste moves in a linear way towards landfill; as opposed to moving through the value chain and being made into new items. An example is a cardboard box being made into a new paper reel and then, ultimately, a new cardboard box,
- Compostable and biodegradable: Packaging that can be broken down into non-toxic, natural elements, such as carbon dioxide and water.
- Compostable packaging requires micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi), humidity and heat to decompose in a specified timeframe of 12 weeks.
- Biodegradable products also require micro-organisms to help it break down, but within a non-specified timeframe.
- All compostable packaging is biodegradable either in industrial or home composting facilities, but not all biodegradable plastic packaging is compostable, as it won’t break down in a stipulated timeframe.
- Collector: A person who collects waste for recycling. They do an invaluable job because they ensure the recyclables don’t end up going to landfill. Whilst most consumers may think of collectors as the people who collect around refuse day, it can extend to schools, communities and small businesses who also collect waste for recycling and get reimbursed for it.
- Recycler: In the recycling value chain, this is the collection sites or recycling operations where a lot of the loose material comes in, gets sorted, baled and then sent onto the relevant recycler or paper mill.
