Comrades litter turned into ‘green desks’
Five tons of the waste was up-cycled into desks for an underprivileged school.
THE 90th Comrades Marathon is long done and dusted after over 90 000 people, both competitors and spectators, attended the popular event.
The race, as usual sees thousands of plastic items being used and this year was no different. But now the plastics which would normally end up in landfill sites, or worse, was put to good use.
Thanks to a partnership with the Wildlands Conservation Trust (WCT) and the Comrades Marathon Association five tons of the waste was up-cycled into desks for an underprivileged school.
From the five tons of waste 125 desks were created and donated to the Insika Secondary School in Pietermaritzburg. Wildlands’ CEO Dr Andrew Venter, said there is a shortage of more than 300 000 school desks in South Africa.
“Our recycling team did a sterling clean-up operation over the first half of the route collecting over 5 000 kilograms of plastic and cardboard which was recycled at the Wildlands Midmar Recycling Depot,” said Buyi Makhoba, Wildlands’ strategic marketing manager.
According to Makhoba, multiple layers of plastics and packaging are used to create the plastic planks for the desks. “Chip and sweet packets were previously not recyclable, so this is a truly ground breaking innovation which edges Wildlands ever closer to realizing its vision towards a sustainable future for all,” she added.
Members of the public have been invited to visit the school on Mandela Day (18 July), where the Wildlands group will be conducting a range of activities. Wildlands appealed for potential partners to sponsor one of the desks R600.
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