National Clean-up and Recycling Week is held from 16 to 20 September with National Recycling Day on 19 September, but the municipal entity sought to promote recycling as an activity that should be taken up all year round.
In a bid to ensure that residents contributed to a cleaner and healthier environment, Pikitup offered residents a few tips to get them into the habit of recycling.
- Reduce waste and re-use whatever you can at home
- Think pre-cycling by looking out for and buying products that can be recycled
- Buy products that use recycled materials in the product itself or in the packaging, as the demand for recycled products results in demand for recyclables
- Apart from recycling, adopt other green practises such as switching to natural cleaners that are biodegradable.
- Use environmentally sound products because they do minimal harm to the environment
- Extend green practises to your family by encouraging them to play a part in recycling at home
- Help your family and friends to understand how easy and hassle-free recycling can be through example
- Encourage them to look out for the items that can be re-used or recycled, instead of throwing them away
- Offer to send the recyclables they have collected for recycling, when you send yours.
Meanwhile, the City of Joburg said its “Separation at Source” waste minimisation programme in partnership with Pikitup was steadily gaining traction.
The programme, which was aimed at diverting recyclable waste away from landfill sites and encouraging members of the community to see waste as a resource, was piloted by Pikitup in September 2009.
The programme now covered all seven of the city’s regions in six of its 11 depots, and more than 486 000 households in the city were covered by the programme contributing to the diversion of more than 14 000 tonnes of recycled waste from landfill sites in the 2013/14 financial year.
Through the “Separation at Source”, residents were required to use three separate receptacles to store their waste for collection.
The normal 240-litre black or green refuse bin was used only for non-recyclable household waste, while the two extra bags were utilised for recycling waste.
The clear plastic bag was for recycling glass, bottles, polystyrene materials, cans and plastics; whereas the reusable white hessian bag is for recycling all paper, boxes and cardboard materials.
These bags were provided weekly free of charge by Pikitup.
According to the city council, the programme not only encouraged residents to recycle their household refuse – which was ordinarily discarded – but it also promoted job creation through the exchange of money for recyclable waste.
