Omar Kinnear, developer of ResidentPortal, the web-based communication portal for community schemes, is calling for more schemes to introduce recycling initiatives.

Kinnear warns that waste management in South Africa is in a crisis.  “According to the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa, each person of our total population of 61 million generates up to 2kg of waste a day (more than 125 million tons of hazardous and general waste a year).

“The major issue with this massive amount of waste generation is that the majority of it goes to landfill, however most major cities and local municipalities across South Africa have very little space left for landfill sites,” he says.

According to Kinnear, this is something that few people understand, given the many open spaces around cities and towns.  “The truth is that landfills potentially pose a risk to human health and the surrounding environment, so landfill site selection has to be carried out with great care.”

Multiple factors must be considered, such as groundwater depth, land slope, soil permeability and stability, flooding susceptibility, land use type, nearby settlements and urbanisation, cultural and protected site vicinity, wind direction, roads, railways, pipelines, powerlines, and proximity to airports.

Too few households recycle waste

Research by Statistics SA shows that, although some South Africans are aware of the environmental and ethical value of recycling, most households do not recycle their household waste.  “In fact, despite the benefits and need for recycling, studies report that as few as 7% of South African households recycle,” he notes.

Kinnear believes that it would take little effort for complexes and estates to invite recycling companies to quote on recycling services, and costs could be added to levy statements and shared by residents.

Surveys could be used to see how many residents are interested in setting up recycling, he says.  “A number of community schemes are already running surveys from our portal (available at www.residentportal.co.za), which makes it easy to gauge residents’ interest.”

Need for recycling education drive

He believes the reason few people routinely recycle is partly because of the effort involved, and partly because they don’t know how to recycle, but also because they’re not aware of the benefits of recycling.

“So it would be important for any recycling initiative to be accompanied by an educational campaign to increase awareness of the need for and benefits of recycling.”

These include relieving the pressure on landfill sites, reducing air and water pollution and saving energy.  Recycling further reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, that are believed to contribute to global climate change.

Items that can be recycled include paper such as newspapers, magazines, and mixed paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, rigid plastic products and metal containers, including tin, aluminium and steel cans.

“Many people aren’t aware of the kinds of items that can’t be recycled, so whoever supplies recycling services can assist in an education campaign,” says Kinnear.  Examples of non recyclable items include windows, mirrors, light bulbs, drinking glasses, crockery and ceramics, food-tainted containers such as pizza boxes and paper plates, foam egg cartons, photographs and plastic toys.

For more stories like this, Get Estate Life Magazine for free