Umvoti Municipality Your Place of Peace & Prosperity
For many of us recycling has become a part of our daily lives. We know that recycling helps conserve natural resources, but most South Africans are not aware that it go’s beyond conserving space in our landfills. Did you know that recycling also conserves energy and water and helps to reduce air and water pollution?
For example, production of recycled paper uses 80% less water and 65% less energy, and produces 95% less air pollution than virgin paper production. If every South African recycled his or her newspaper just one day a week, we would save about 30 million trees a year. For every 1m stack of paper you recycle, you save a tree.
Conserving energy is an important issue in South Africa, especially with increased demand and unpredictable energy delivery. Energy savings through recycling are an important environmental benefit. It almost always takes less energy to make a new product from recycled materials than it does to make it from new materials.Heard of Global Warming? The average South African generates about 6000kg of carbon dioxide every year from personal transportation, home energy use and from the energy used to produce all of the products and services we consume.
Ton for ton, recycling reduces more pollution, saves more energy and reduces GHG emissions more than any other solid waste management option. South Africans currently throw away millions of tons of recyclable materials every year and over 70 percent of the “garbage” in South African landfills can be composted or recycled. Increasing recycling should be South Africa’s priority strategy for reducing global warming effects associated with solid waste management…
Recycling reduces air and water pollution because the recycling process reduces the amount of air pollution produced by power plants and the amount of water pollution produced by chemicals used in the manufacturing process. The environmental impacts of recycling are also astounding. Each year recycling could saves enough energy to power 1.4 million homes and reduces water pollutants by 27,047 tons. Furthermore, recycling saves 14 million trees each year and helps to reduce air pollutants by 165,142 tons.
Recycling saves space in our existing landfills. As landfills fill up we have to find new space for additional landfills. Recycling also reduces the amount of solid waste going into landfills, making each landfill last longer.
So start your own recycling revolution at home or office and make a difference!
A Short Guide to Recycling in South Africa
RECYCLABLES GUIDE
Paper: Newspapers; magazines; cardboard boxes; cereal cartons; chocolate boxes; toilet roll inners; egg boxes; gift wrap; Tetrapak containers
Glass: Beer bottles, wine bottles; chutney bottles; jam jars.
Metal: Cool drink cans; food cans; tops and lids.
Plastic (Check for the P codes on the bottles):
- PET-1: Water bottles; Soft drinks; Cooking oils; Dishwashing liquid; Juice; Hard plastic fruit trays;
- PE-HD-2: Most detergents; Shampoo; Milk; Thin plastic bags;
- PE-LD-4: Thin plastic bags eg: Sliced bread; Milk bags; Six pack shrink wraps for beer; Magazine wrappers; Bulk toilet roll wrappers; Fruit and vegetable bags; Bubble wrap; Thick shopping bags;
- PP-5: Ice cream tubs and margarine tubs; yogurt; feta; ready-made meal trays;
- PS-6: Foamed meat trays; fast food clamshells.
- Other-7
Complex laminates: - Pet food pouches
- Soup pouches
- Bacon vacuum packs.
Things that can NOT be recycled include: Coat hangers; laminated or waxy paper; paper plates; waxy paper ream wrappers; carbon paper, punch confetti; stickers; sticky tape; post-it notes; pet food pouches; vacuum packs; disposable nappies; tissues; chips packets; chocolate wrappers; clingwrap; drinking glasses. – Source: wwf.org.za
DID YOU KNOW POLYSTYRENE IS A PLASTIC?
The 2 most widely used forms of Polystyrene are Expanded Polystyrene, also known as EPS, and High Impact Polystyrene, also known as HIPS. Polystyrene is found in your home, office, local grocery and favourite restaurant and comes in many shapes and forms. Polystyrene provides strength, lightness, durability, heat resistance, transparency, gloss, desirable appearance and practical toughness for a wide range of uses, including packaging, medical products, appliances and electronic products.
Remember Polystyrene is a Plastic therefore you will not find specific Polystyrene Containers at a drop off site. Please drop your Polystyrene in the Plastic Containers at the drop off sites. For more information visit polystyrenepackaging.co.za
WHAT IS E-WASTE?
Electronic and electrical waste includes ICT equipment, Consumer electronics, Small household appliances and large household appliances. E-waste contains both valuable and potentially hazardous material that can be recovered through proper recycling, while hazardous fractions can be treated prior to safe disposal.
e-Waste Association of South Africa collect e-Waste ANYWHERE in South Africa and Africa. Contact them at (+27) 010 224 0673 or visit ewasa.org
Information Sourced :
http://www.saef.co.za
