Recycling is such a hot topic the world over, yet in Tzaneen and South Africa as a whole, very little is being done to alleviate the immense pressure on our landfill sites, to reduce plastic pollution in our oceans and generally, to try and save this planet.
So why Tzaneen? Why does nobody seem to care?
Granted, the support from Government is limited in South Africa. Granted, more could be done from the Greater Tzaneen Municipality’s side but Government budgets hinder progress. Granted, there is little awareness in South Africa compared to other countries.
But this isn’t actually an excuse. Each and every household in Tzaneen CAN and SHOULD recycle.
GTM along with Protonka Recycling are upping their game and hopefully we will see results in the coming months.
The initiative which should take to the streets of Tzaneen by September will employ multiple people to cover the entire Tzaneen town, with one person assigned to a designated portion, street or housing estate within the town. Provided with uniform, high visibility jackets and trolleys from Protonka, the persons employed will be responsible for collecting recyclable items from each and every household in their designated area.
Read: War on Waste: Meet the unsung recycling soldiers of Tzaneen
The initiative will work with GTM so that the recycling collection is done on the same day as the rubbish collection.
If households can aim to separate recycled material beforehand, this is the ultimate goal, but until that happens, the person employed will sort through the rubbish in the bags left on the street and remove recyclables. If the separation of materials can be done at source, in other words, in people’s homes, it means that the items will remain clean and will not need washing later on. This saves a lot of water!
One of the main issues that GTM and Protonka are facing is the influx of illegal recyclers from neighbouring communities such as Nkowankowa. They are unregistered and are stealing recyclable material from local depots and off of the streets. For example, recycling depots have been set up at the likes of Sugarhill, Checkers and other large companies. The recyclable material is then to be collected by Protonka but the illegal recyclers are coming in the night and stealing the materials.
Furthermore, they are targeting household waste left on the streets of residential areas. Bags are being ripped open, recyclable material stolen and the rest of the waste left strewn across the roads and grass verges. By employing someone to collect recyclable material from our household waste on the streets of town should alleviate the problems caused by the illegal recyclers.
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In the past, recycling depots for the public were set up at local petrol stations. The infrastructure was vandalised and destroyed by illegal recyclers and had to be closed down. GTM have been in contact with the police with regards to the issue and nothing is done. The illegal recyclers have been contacted by GTM and it is alleged that they are not interested in getting themselves registered and making things all above board.
The second initiative by GTM and Protonka targets secure complexes. Here, people are encouraged to separate their recyclable items and leave them out for collection on the same day as GTM do their rounds. In such places, illegal recyclers do not have access to gated communities. Recyclable items should be left in a different colour bag.
This scheme has been piloted at Macadamia and has so far proved to be a huge success. On a given day, Protonka enter the gated community, collect all the green bags and shortly after, GTM enter and collect the black bags.
Employing people to work on the streets and collect recyclable material door-to-door will create a number of jobs in the area. In fact, the more we recycle, the more jobs it will create!
What about the people employed to collect recyclable material at the landfill you may ask? Even if every household in Tzaneen started recycling tomorrow, there would still be material for them to sort through at the site.
The time to start recycling was yesterday but starting today will have to do.
