Recycling Is A Good Place To Start

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September 10th, 2008

At present recycling is performed as a precautionary and reasonable measure to avoid pollution.

Your waste can cause water and soil pollution as well as a nuisance at your landfills. Currently recycling is not a legal requirement however the National Environmental Waste Bill, sec 16 proposes to enforce a general duty on the holder of waste to avoid, reduce, recycle, manage, recover and educate employees.

Recycling has become a popular starting point for companies when planning environmental objectives or in anticipation of the Waste Bill. It does however require some planning and some awareness for the initiative to be successful. When embarking on a recycling programme at your organisation, waste principles of 1) Avoid, 2) Re-use, 3) Recycle and 4) Correct disposal are very widely accepted. This is your starting point.

Develop a list of all your waste streams including hazardous waste, each and every stream must be named as these could be recycled if properly separated. Determine which streams can be recycled and contact service providers for requirements on storage and collection of this waste. Often the challenge to recycling is separation awareness, as employees may be more likely to dispose of their waste in the closest refuse bin which is why determining refuse storage points are very crucial in the planning stages.

Employees need to be educated on the difference between the waste streams and the importance of separating this waste at source. If waste is not separated correctly or contaminated by oily products it will be rejected. All waste streams should have some kind of distinguishing character for employee ease of use, whether it is colours, sign posts or pictures. The key is consistency and education. Another challenge is to contract service providers for collection. Some service providers are quite specific about the amounts and types they willing to collect, so be sure of their requirements and collection quantities. If your collection amounts are low, forming partnerships with other organisations may benefit you.

Good news for recyclers is it saves the organisation money and for every ton of paper you recycle you save 17 trees, and recycling one glass bottle saves 4 hours of electricity for a 100w light bulb. Almost 50% of waste sent to the landfill is recycled and electronic waste can now also be recycled. Please also refer to Department of Environmental Affairs “Working for waste - Guideline on recycling of solid waste” for colourful environmental tool box talks.

These websites can also offer more guidance.

• E-Waste
• Institute of Waste Management
• National Recycling Forum
• Gauteng G-Dace Waste Management
• Waste Management Services

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Comments

Geoff Truter (2010-9-1)

I notice that the Cara Stokes’ webpage has not been updated since 2008.
Any further news on the Limpopo mine being closed due to non compliance with Environmental Laws??
I saw the headlines this morning on E-News.