Recycle after the festive season
With festive season now behind us, what happens to all the waste?
Mpact Recycling is asking consumers to put aside recyclable paper and packaging rather than dispose of it with the rest of their household waste.
“Although it seems the easiest way to dispose of recyclable materials might be to throw them away with the rest of the rubbish, Mpact’s recycling’s neighbourhood ‘paper banks’ make it simple for communities to continue recycling throughout the festive season,” says John Hunt, managing director of Mpact Recycling.
They have a number of paper bank drop-off points conveniently located at schools, churches, community centres and forecourts in neighbourhoods across the country.
They also operate a paper recycling collection service in some of these areas that will, apart from national public holidays, remain open throughout the festive season.
“Recycling paper is especially easy around this time of year, as there is an abundance of it to be found, meaning that sorting and separating it is less of an issue for consumers,” says Hunt.
They collect around 457 000 tonnes of recovered paper per year and about 70 per cent of this is used by the group’s paper mills in the manufacture of recycle-based paper and packaging.
Hunt says that using only virgin fibre in the manufacture of paper-based packaging is not sustainable for the environment or for the packaging sector. It’s therefore critical that enough recycled paper is collected for conversion into fibre.
The input of recovered paper also has a positive impact in terms of climate change because it replaces virgin material and reduces greenhouse gas emissions linked to the production of virgin fibre, and prevents the land-filling or incineration of recovered paper.
“There is a growing awareness and sense of responsibility among consumers to buy packaged foods and goods that are environmentally sustainable,” says Hunt.
Recycling work also provides jobs for around 100 000 people in South Africa, many of whom are entrepreneurs and small business owners that rely on sustained volumes of recycled material to earn a living.
“Beyond the gifts, the feasts and the festivities that characterise this time of year is the spirit of giving, and in this case, giving back to our communities and to the environment. The effort that it takes for one person or household to recycle is small, but the difference that it makes will be felt far and wide.”
