An ambitious recycling campaign for a cleaner environment, reports Grace Black
An initiative to collect discarded plastic bottles got underway in Gauteng last month at the start of World Environment Week.
The programme will run for three years during which South Africa hopes to set an example to the world by collecting 5 000 tons of plastic bottles by February 2002.
Iqbal Hirji, managing director of the South African Polyester Recyclers (SAPR) said at the start of World Environment Week that over 1.2 billion polyethylene terephthalate (Pet) bottles are produced and sold in South Africa each year, the majority of which are not recycled. It takes up to thousands of years for one of these bottles to biodegrade. Billions of plastic bottles end up in landfill sites or litter the landscape in South Africa.
Special containers for the collection of the plastic bottles have been placed at selected schools in Gauteng. The project will roll out to other schools during the year.
Hirji says the benefits to schools is threefold: it will help clean up the environment, educate children on the importance of recycling and raise funds for schools.
“We need to create an awareness amongst children that they have a moral responsibility to recycle,” Hirji says.
For every kilogram of plastic bottles collected, a participating school will receive R1. Hirji says the collected Pet products – fizzy drink bottles, mineral water bottles and cooking oil bottles, cleaning aid and cosmetic containers – will be converted into polyester fibre.
This fibre can be exported for the production of material, which can be used to make clothing, carpets, stuffing for pillows, duvets and even soft toys. X-ray and camera film can also be collected for recycling as this can be converted into fibre to make grey carpets.
Gauteng has been targeted as the primary collection region because over 60% of the Pet produced in the country is used in the province. It is hoped that over 20 000 tons of discarded Pet products will be collected annually.
The project has received the backing of Coca Cola and the Plastic Federation of South Africa.
Hirji said a pilot project for people to collect the discarded bottles and receive money in return, has started in Krugersdorp. Apart from creating jobs, the project was contributing to the cleanup of the environment, Hirji said.
Part of the initiative is to educate communities on the value of recycling and apart from schools collection containers will also be placed at churches on beaches and in national parks.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, July 2001.