TZANEEN: Stretch your rand by going green and recycling
“Around 20% of the waste that comes out of your kitchen is non-recyclable. Even less if you use the organic waste for your compost heap.”
While everyone is busy trying to stretch their rands to the end of the month, many people are using recycling as a way to earn extra money. While this is a brilliant way to make extra cash, it’s also a great way to help the environment and the local municipality.
The refuse deposit sites are filling up too quickly. A way to combat this is to start recycling.
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By doing this you lessen the amount of refuse that ends up at the dumping zones.
Henk Mienie, Solid Waste Manager at the Greater Tzaneen Municipality, explained to the LETABA HERALD how the whole waste management process works, and that recycling is the first dynamic of waste management.
“One of the problems that arise when the refuse deposit sites are filled up would be that the waste management department needs to find another acceptable place for the waste to go. This could mean that the transportation fees are increased because the new refuse deposit sites are farther away,” explained Mienie.
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These sites are designed and placed with the utmost care and detail concerning the sociological, environmental and economic impact it might have on the nearest town or city.
The Waste Management department has to look at the possible drainage patterns, ground water sources and agricultural land use surrounding the possible refuse deposit sites.
“The reason for this is because we need to make sure that the depositing sites won’t pollute the ground water or soil. When we construct the refuse depositing sites we start by putting a layer of geo-synthetic-membrane where the waste is going to go. This ensures that the waste stays capsulated in that area and prevents it from contaminating the rest of the area.” Mienie went on to explain the waste capsules that they create are like Tupperware containers, where the walls of the containers represent the geo-synthetic membrane.
So the thing with recycling is, if you’re a business owner and you have a lot of refuse that you need to get rid of, then recycling is a great way of reducing the amount of refuse that gets picked up from your business and goes to the dumping zones.
This means that your monthly refuse bill will be less and in some cases you might make a bit of money by selling your recyclable waste to recycling facilities in the area.
“Around 20% of the waste that comes out of your kitchen is non-recyclable. Even less if you use the organic waste for your compost heap,” explained Jurie Strijdom, owner at Strijdom Recycling.
The HERALD visited a recycling facility in the Tzaneen area; where we looked at the many ways in which refuse can be recycled.
Strijdom helped the HERALD with our list of a few tips and tricks to remember when recycling:
When you put out your trash bags and you have already sorted your refuse into waste and recyclable materials then you should put the recycled material into a different coloured bag, usually a clear refuse bag is recommended. You can also take those bags and deposit them at a recycling facility to earn extra money.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your food waste, like potato peels, old bread, organic material, can be used to make compost. This means you can throw all of the organic waste into a separate bag and either use it for your own compost heap or organise that someone who makes compost comes to pick it up.
When you decide to start recycling bottles, like water bottles and milk bottles, respectively, then remember to remove the lids from the bottles and put them in a different bag. The reason for this is because the lids go through a different recycling process than the rest of the bottles.
Lastly, there is an array of things that you can recycle, from different kinds of plastic to paper, carton, some rubber piping, polystyrene and electronics!
