Wastemart, a well-established waste contractor based in Athlone, takes over the reigns from outgoing contractor WastePlan.
Mr Marthinus highlighted that recycling had a number of benefits. “It saves natural resources such as water and energy. For example, by recycling 1kg of paper, we save 100 litres of water.”
Ian Steenkamp from Llandudno recycles his plastic and paper waste.
“By recycling, not only am I saving our planet by reusing what gets thrown away, but at the same time, we’re keeping these things out of the ocean, out of our stormwater systems and off the streets,” he said.
Hout Bay’s Edwina Franks added: “We need to target our youth as they need to grow up knowing the importance of recycling.
“The kids of today don’t even know what recycling is all about. If the WasteMart team can create some kind of excitement around recycling, they can be sure to collect so much more waste in our communities,” she said.
“Just like we get kids excited about everything else, let’s get them excited about saving our planet and start recycling.”
Producing new products from scratch, and sending waste to landfill create greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which are causing global warming. Recycling helps to limit these emissions. For example, by recycling 1 ton of mixed recyclables (paper, glass, plastic and tin/aluminium), 3.45 tons of GHG emissions are avoided, which is the same as taking 8.93 cars off the road for a year.
Ward councillor Roberto Quintas said the Hout Bay area would experience some real benefits in terms of kerbside recycling waste collection.
“Not only does this ensure that a great deal of plastic, glass, paper and other reusable or recyclable waste products not end up in our seas and rivers and further add to a damaging long lasting footprint on our river and coastal systems, but also creates jobs and allows for sorting that sees dry waste sorted to be reused or recycled and create job opportunities in the process,” he said.
He added that the service provided by the City of Cape Town and WasteMart “far surpasses those provided by municipalities of well developed and First World cities” in terms of convenience.
London, Vancouver and Lisbon, for example, require residents to sort their recycling into several different categories and only if sorted adequately, will they be collected from a central point where residents are required to drop off their recycling.
“WasteMart and the City have together made recycling easy and all residents are able to play a small part in reversing some of our collective footprint with a minimum of effort and great convenience,” Mr Quintas said.
Residents of Hout Bay, Llandudno, Clifton, Bantry Bay, Fresnaye and Camps Bay not yet on the kerbside recycling collection programme (or who have been, but have run out of clear bags to restart) can order clear bags by contacting Quiyaam at WasteMart on 0860 456 786 or email recycling@wastemart.co.za Clear recycling bags are also available from Spar or Pick * Pay in Hout Bay and Spar and Checkers in Regent Road, Sea Point.
More details about how and what to recycle are available on the WasteMart website at www.wastemart.co.za