A remarkable separation-at-source recycling pilot project in the City of Tshwane is reaping rewards. It is enticing the public to recycle, extracting quality recyclables right where they are disposed of and diverting them from landfill, and proving that public-private partnerships of this kind can create economic opportunities for service providers in the collection and recycling value chain.
Since February this year, visitors to Tshwane’s popular public Fountains Valley Resort have been greeted by 12 large colour-coded and labelled recycling bins – part of the city’s first separation-at-source (S@S) recycling campaign in a public space.
Resort visitors simply drop their empty aluminium cans, plastic, paper and glass packaging waste from the food and beverages they consume into the appropriate recycling bins.
A collaboration between the City of Tshwane and Petco – South Africa’s longest-standing producer responsibility organisation (PRO) – the S@S campaign is already a success, according to officials, and plans are now afoot to extend it to the city’s many other resorts and public areas.
“The primary objective of this initiative is to instigate a shift in human behaviour,” said Tlou Sebola, Petco regional recycling manager for collections and training projects. “We anticipate that the habit of separating recyclables, cultivated at the resort, will extend beyond its premises and be embraced in homes and workplaces as well.”
Not only are the S@S bins encouraging resort visitors to recycle, but they are also achieving other crucial goals. These include diverting recyclable waste from the city’s landfills, as well as improving the quality of the recyclable materials which are separated out – since they don’t get contaminated by the non-recyclable, mostly organic, residual waste.
Sorting the recyclable materials helps waste pickers, who receive better payment for collecting cleaner materials, separated according to type, that they sell to buy-back centres, which then on-sell them to recyclers.
Sebola and her team at Petco have also been holding education and training workshops with the Fountains Valley Resort staff, to ensure the S@S project – one of a number that Petco is rolling out with its partners nationwide – is well managed.
At the launch of the project in mid-April, councillor Ziyanda Zwane said that, like much of South Africa, the City of Tshwane was running out of landfill space at its four main landfill sites.
“It is of crucial importance that we separate our waste so that we enhance our recycling efforts,” said Zwane. “We are looking forward to rolling this out to every corner of the city, to ensure we minimise the waste that is going to our landfills.”
According to parks officials at the launch event, much of the waste generated at the city’s resorts was recyclable.
Officials said the initiative would make it easier for waste pickers. They added that prior to the project, waste pickers had to sort through general waste in search of valuable recyclable packaging, which at that stage was contaminated by food waste.
Broadening the project to other resorts would enable the city to enlist the help of cooperatives who had experience and passion for collection and recycling, officials said.
Sebola said the 12 large recycling bins dotted around the Fountains Valley Resort were also made from materials many would consider waste.
“The bins were primarily made from poly-aluminium – a mixture of plastic and aluminium pellets – extracted from recycled liquid board cartons which were used to package fruit juice, milk and custard,” said Sebola.
The manufacture of the 12 bins “utilised 2.5-tonnes of poly-aluminium and polyethylene film”, said Maggie Infante, CEO of Infinite Industries, which manufactured the bins. “This translates to 750,000 one-litre cartons which were diverted from landfill.”
These cartons are one of the waste streams that Petco administers an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for. By making new products from recycled materials – such as S@S bins – it stimulates demand for collection of the cartons within the value chain, explained Sebola.
Petco CEO Cheri Scholtz said waste management was a huge challenge for most South African towns and cities, but that good waste management offered many long-term socio-economic benefits, including a cleaner environment, healthier communities and an increase in tourism.
“There are many pressing demands on municipal funding. Public-private partnership is one way to move forward, and it is our collective responsibility to help find solutions,” said Scholtz, adding that there was no one-size-fits-all solution.
“It’s a complex landscape, but we have to divert valuable materials that have recyclable potential away from landfill. Together, we can make the necessary system changes. It won’t be instant, but it is urgent.”