Mother City wins Recycling Municipality of the Year

The City of Cape Town has been awarded the PETCO ‘Recycling Municipality of the Year’ award in recognition of its ongoing efforts in waste minimisation. PETCO aims to minimise the environmental impact of post-consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate plastic (PET).

“As one of the larger metropolitan municipalities, Cape Town was nominated for this award for its leading approach to integrated waste management. Our goal is to not only provide basic services, but to minimise the effects of waste on the environment, while augmenting the associated economic activities,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services, Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg.

Some of the achievements that served to motivate the award include:

• Cape Town being the first municipality to implement kerb-side collection. The City now has six split-bag pilot recycling programmes and two materials recovery facilities;
• The running of 25 public waste drop-off sites;
• Implementation of the Integrated Waste Exchange (IWEX);
• The work of the Solid Waste By-law Enforcement Unit;
• The active recyclers database;
• Commissioning of a study on full cost accounting for the City’s landfill sites;
• Our active and successful awareness campaigns including the Waste Wise, Think Twice and Smart Living programmes.

Recycling swop-shops

As part of our commitment to being a Caring and Well-run City, the City’s Solid Waste Management Department this month supported the NGO Beyond Education in the opening of a recycling swop-shop at the Inkwenkwezi High School in Dunoon.

The swop-shop, which is an initiative sponsored by the Airports Company of South Africa, provides a facility where the Dunoon community can exchange quantities of recyclable materials for goods such as food, toiletries, shoes, books, toys, stationery and second-hand clothes.

The City supports this initiative by providing the communities with waste education through plays and talks, and supplying waste-wise stationery packs to the swop-shops which include a ruler, notepad, lanyard and bag.

“Additionally, Inkwenkwezi High School learners who work in the shop will be taken on a tour of the City’s Athlone Refuse Transfer Station to gain a more in-depth understanding of the waste stream,” said Councillor Sonnenberg.

The Dunoon initiative has seen a strong start, with 28 sugar bags collected on its first trading day. These are large bags into which the recyclables are packed before they are sent off to be weighed by the vendor, who is then able to say how many kilograms were collected. Money from the sale of the recyclables goes directly to restocking the Dunoon shop.

National Recycling Day

On Friday 20 September 2013, the City’s Solid Waste Management Department will be participating in the festivities of National Recycling Day, to be held Cape Town Station Prasa court area.

There will be exhibition stands and a large PenBev stage where hourly performances will communicate the message of good, sustainable waste management.