Following the Glass Recycling Company’s 2016 Annual Schools Glass Recycling Competition, the winning schools from across South Africa have been awarded some large cash prizes for playing their part in reducing the country’s waste.
Laerskool Anton van Wouw was awarded the first prize worth R30 000 as Gauteng’s regional winner for collecting 50 402kgs of recyclable glass products.
St Stithians College won the second prize worth R20 000, while St Paulus Pre- and Primary School won the third prize worth R10 000.
Jointly, the top three Gauteng schools collected 115 256kgs of glass, which consists of 345 768 bottles. The recycling of these products saves enough energy to light a compact fluorescent bulb light for 281 years or operate a computer for over 13 years.
“The objective of the competition is to educate learners about the many benefits of glass recycling and the ease with which it can be done,” said Shabeer Jhetam, CEO of The Glass Recycling Company. Integrating recycling habits, green behaviour and purpose will enable South Africa’s next generation to learn about the importance of recycling.
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“We are committed to bringing a greener, cleaner country to the next generation, and our aim is to educate and encourage young consumers to ‘recover, reuse and recycle’, as well as to emphasise how glass recycling positively impacts the environment with minimal effort,” said Jhetam. According to the Glass Recycling Company, this can encourage the country’s young minds to actively engage in sustainable solutions.
“This is one competition not to miss out on. The next round of the competition for 2017 has just kicked off but you can still enter, which will see us set for even bigger and better things with the added benefit of educating learners and helping to protect our environment at the same time,” concluded Jhetam.
“This year schools in Port Elizabeth and East London are also able to enter.”
Details: www.tgrc.co.za; Thandi Sibanya 011 463 5644; thandi@tgrc.co.za
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