He claims he was told that the individual recycling collectors cannot bale the items, therefore only certain plastics will be received from them.
These articles allegedly exclude brown and green plastic bottles.
Botha has been recycling for many years to earn an extra income to add to his government pension.
However, this income has now dropped drastically due to the alleged new arrangements.
“Earning an added income through recycling helped us to buy much needed extras we normally cannot afford with our government pension,” he says.
Botha recycles plastic of any colour as well as cartons and paper.
This Geduld resident drives around to collect recyclable material which he sorts out and pack into big bags in his garage at home.
He was surprised when he was told, after taking his normal delivery of recyclables to the recycling company about three weeks ago, that they will only take clear plastic and not any coloured plastic.
“What must I do with all the extra plastic I have collected?” he asks.
He feels he has wasted petrol money collecting plastic tablet bottles, paint holders and other coloured plastics.
“If I’d known I wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble,” says Botha.
This, he claims, will add to the refuse piling up in the streets because “we can only take clear plastic bottles”.
He believes this will become a problem to most of the individuals collecting plastic bottles for recycling.
According to Alan de Haas, Gauteng regional manager of Mpact Recycling, Mpact is currently undergoing an upgrade to the Springs Recycling yard which in the long run will benefit all people delivering recyclables to Springs.
“Green and brown plastic bottles are classified as different grades of PET, and we accept a limited amount of this grade because we don’t use them in our business,” he says.
These bottles are then sold on to other recyclers to be used in other products such as textiles.
“Our polymers operation based in Wadeville processes the blue and clear PET bottles into new PET bottles,” he says.
