With waste continuing to accumulate in open velds, landfills and in our oceans, endangering wildlife, tackling plastic pollution has never been so pressing. It is an urgent priority and a responsibility we need to take more seriously.
Are monthly clean up campaigns enough? Do residents fully understand the impact of illegal dumping? Do residents know that they can earn extra money from recycling their waste? These are questions asked by the Rolo Recycling team, Eldorado Park’s first full blown recycling organisation who believe that they have a solution to eradicate waste management within the community.
Rolo Recycling is an organisation started by the Albertyn family, a family residing in Klipspruit. Waleed Albertyn, who is one of the directors said that the idea came from simply wanting a better and cleaner environment. “It all started when we drove past a recycling depot in the Johannesburg CBD. “We were inspired and thought of bringing the idea to Eldos. We realised that we needed to start thinking beyond ourselves. We needed to start thinking for the future. Are we doing everything we possibly can to create a cleaner, safer
environment?” he said.
The family have since committed themselves to being the change within the Greater Eldorado Park community. “Recycling is important for various reasons; the first obvious reason is that it will help clean up our community. Recycling is also important because it allows for job creation as well as creates awareness and reminds residents about the importance of looking after our environment,” said Ziyaad Albertyn, who is also a director.
“The aim of our organisation is to get the community involved. Since opening the recycling depot, many residents have come to drop off their recyclables, in return, we pay them for their waste. Many children have also visited the depot during the school holidays to drop off the bottles they have collected,” he added.
Sameera Albertyn, who is the public relations officer spoke about the vision and goals of the organisation.
“We want to give back and involve the community as much as possible. We want to clean up Eldorado Park and go green. We also plan to visit schools to educate them about recycling, and as soon as we are big enough, we will employ more residents from our community. When we started, we only had two employees, within a month – we have grown to seven. Recycling is the future,” she said. Rolo Recycling accepts all recyclable plastics, cans and paper.
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