Sub-Committee Chair: Rita Ribbens-Burger

One does not have to pay to separate plastic, tins, glass and paper in one container for JAC’s Recycling and Open Sky, whereas for other (free) schemes one has to separate into the various categories. There are at least five options for household items that should be recycled:

• JAC Recycling Services: collects every second week on a Thursday. R600 per year or R50 per month, whatever suits you. Richard can be contacted at 082 5452166 or 079 3827203 and www.jacrecycling.co.za. LED and batteries have to be put in separate containers in a transparent plastic bag, but the other items need not be sorted;
• Open Sky: the costs are slightly higher. Again one does not have to separate at source;
• Dutch Reformed Church: in Kirkness Street (gates open weekdays from 7h30 to 15h30) is one of three free options. One can take a bag with everything and pay a tip to the guard Stephen to help deposit into the appropriate containers;
• Loftus Park Shopping Centre: now has bins available in the basement. Take the Upper-level entrance, choose the Checkers option and drive down to the basement area where “Waste Management” is clearly marked but do not stop here. Continue to the end before turning left and then park in front of the big door where bins are available;
• Informal Recyclers: the sidewalk recyclers or trolley men are still around. If we support them by separating recyclables from garbage they will not make a mess on the pavement while searching though the wheelie bins. The pandemic has put brakes on a project that was to register these recyclers, provide uniforms and
  sturdy trolleys for members, while medical aid and other benefits were on the cards for these people. These people urgently need support because this is their only source of income. When Lockdown was announced at the end of March they were recognised as essential workers and allowed to continue saving items from
  ending-up in the landfill.

Theft of bins

Unfortunately, some people (perhaps also “Informal recyclers”) have used wheelie bins as a means of transporting stolen goods, so it would be wise to mark your wheelie bin conspicuously with your address or perhaps boldly paint it so that no one would want to take it. If it is stolen, here are the email addresses to which the application forms can be sent to for bins to be replaced: Mpho Kototsi (mpho.kototsi@tshwane.gov.za); Koketso Ntuli (koketson@tshwane.gov.za); and Kefiloe Moalusi (kefiloemol@tshwane.gov.za).

How to support “Informal recyclers”

If you want to support the informal recyclers, this is what you have to: Place clean tins (beer and cold drink cans, food tins, metal lids of glass jars, aluminium foil and foil packaging, metal bottle caps), plastic (PET clear, blue, green and brown and white milk bottles but no TetraPack, for example Liquifruit containers) and white paper and flattened cardboard in any kind of container and place this parcel on top of the garbage in the wheelie bin, or even next to it. “White paper” is office paper with print or lined papers used at school. Coloured and glossy paper are categorised as “common mix” and have a lower buy-back price. Separate these from the white paper batch. The recyclable items (in parcels), separated from real garbage, will be collected by the sidewalk recyclers and, if not, will be easy to recognise by sorters at the landfill who will prevent these items from ending up in the landfill. Glass (clean and whole bottles) is heavy and therefore, not wanted by the informal recyclers. There are containers for glass at the Dutch Reformed Church in Kirkness Street as well as at the Loftus Park recycling depot.

What else can be done to help to save the landfills?

• Odds and sods to be saved for Crèches: take egg trays/boxes, gift wrapping, match boxes, other little boxes, bits of wool, snippets of material, cardboard toilet roll inners, polystyrene vegetable trays and other coloured paper to develop dexterity in little hands and encourage creativity;
• Batteries and light bulbs: branches of Builders’ Warehouse used to provide containers but all Pick ‘n Pay branches have removed their E-waste bins. Woolworths still has bins for depositing used globes;
• Empty paints tins: at present, empty paints tins can be returned to Picasso Paints in Waterkloof and Warrior Paints in Monument part. Both comply with the South African Paint Manufacturers Association (SAPMA) to recycle responsibly. We should start lobbying for all supplies of paint to do the same.

Own container for glass!

You could also arrange for an igloo bin to be delivered to your own home or other suitable place by phoning Philip at 072 1000494.