Home recycling project in Tshwane hopes to expand

Residents are asked to place all their recyclable waste in the free clear bags for WastePlan to collect weekly. Material is sorted and then sold onto Nampak for further processing and recycling. Monthly stats on the effectiveness of the project are managed and shared by WastePlan.

Nampak is a partial funder of the Re:spond service in Tshwane and WastePlan is the operator run by Bertie Lourens. Waste Plan services 120 000 homes in Cape Town as a sub-contractor to the City of Cape Town and has four years' experience in large scale kerb-side recycling projects.

"There's no greater excitement than to partner with an initiative that will see people take care of the environment while creating sustainable economic development," says Srini Naidoo, Nampak Tissues business recycling director.

Use local Engen collection points

In the areas where this service has not been rolled out yet, residents are encouraged to drop off their recyclable waste at participating Engen/Woolworths forecourts. The Engen/Woolworths project that was launched in December 2011 in Joburg and Pretoria follows a successful pilot in Cape Town launched two years ago.

Some of the sites up and running around Gauteng so far are based in Ferndale, Sonneglans, Strydom Park, Cresta, Blairgowrie, Edenburg, Bryanston, Woodmead, Wierda Park, Pretoria, Centurion, Vorna Valley and Witpoortjie. WastePlan collects it from these sites, free of charge.

"The home recycling project is a great initiative that creates job opportunities and diverts large amounts of waste from landfills," concludes Lourens.