Recycle milk and juice cartons as well
Donna Noble, communications manager at Mpact Recycling said we should also educate parents, friends and family members who may not be aware that juice and milk cartons can now also be recycled.
WASTE is anything that we throw away or get rid of and doesn’t get re-used.
Ronnie Recycler (Mpact Recycling mascot) said: “By recycling our milk and juice cartons, we prevent them from becoming waste and give them a new life. This is a big deal because by doing so we also get to protect our natural resources and reduce the dangers of litter on our environment, as well as health problems linked to air and land pollution.”
That waste can lie around as litter on the ground or it eventually gets collected and dumped in a landfill where it remains until it eventually decomposes. Companies like Mpact Recycling collect and separate waste material so that it can then be sent to the appropriate Mpact mill where it is made into new reels of paper and eventually new packaging products. That is a lot better than letting it remain as litter.
How can you help?
If your school runs a recycling programme, look out for our green Ronnie Bank and deposit as much as possible of your recyclables – including paper packaging, and your milk and juice cartons. Just make sure the carton is empty of all its contents and flattened before you dispose of it for recycling.
When these banks are filled up, Mpact Recycling collects the recyclables and often you can even get to meet Ronnie Recycler himself on one of his many school visits around the country, where he encourages recycling among the youth.
Get your school signed up for the Ronnie Recycler programme – if they are not recycling already. This way you can play your part in saving the environment, by disposing of these, and all other recyclable paper products, in your nearest Ronnie Bank at a church or community centre plus they will raise much-needed funds through your donation.
Alternatively, you can participate in Mpact Recycling’s kerbside collection service which is provided at no cost to households and has been running for over 20 years. Instead of throwing away unwanted paper and paper products in the dustbin, simply fill up a Ronnie green bag provided and leave the bag out for collection on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Upon collection, the kerbside collection service leaves an empty new green bag in its place for the next cycle.
How Mpact Recycling helps you help the environment?
Mpact has invested towards initiatives which will enable them to expand and further strengthen the collection of paper and plastic and to increase recycling rates of these materials in South Africa.
One such initiative is the liquid-packaging recycling plant, at the Springs paper mill, which is now able to process approximately 2 000 tonnes per month of cartons, bags and cups.
Remember that for recycling purposes, juice and milk cartons are different to other types of packaging. While they are mostly made of paperboard, like that of cereal boxes, in order to ensure that your juice does not leak, the manufacturers have to line the boxes of juice with a type of plastic called low-density polythene. In some cases, they also use aluminium foil as a lining mechanism.
The liquid packaging recycling plant at the Mpact Springs Mill is supplied by Mpact Recycling with your used juice and milk cartons and the new equipment enables the plant to remove all the additives mentioned, thereby separating out the paper – so that it can be recycled and made into new paper reels.
“All this recyclable raw material was previously considered waste material that would have been sent to landfill sites. But because of your help in the collection and recovery of these cartons, we are able to create many jobs for unemployed people, while keeping our environment clean, safe and healthy for everyone,” said Donna Noble, communications manager at Mpact Recycling. “So, next time you enjoy a juice at school or at home remember how important it is to put the container into the paper recycling bins.”
She adds that we should also educate parents, friends and family members who may not be aware that juice and milk cartons can now also be recycled.
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