In the absence of a Wall-E and a big enough spaceship…
There has never been a better time to recycle!
What do you do with your household rubbish? If you do not send the majority for recycling, we suggest you read on as there has never been a better time to recycle in the Plettenberg Bay area, for almost every imaginable reason.
Firstly of course is that ‘boring’ old story about ‘doing your bit to save the planet’. Fact is, though, that we have to stop using up minerals, chopping down trees and polluting the environment with our production processes and waste. Makes you wonder what sort of planet we are going to leave behind for future generations.
But how can putting your beer bottles in a different colour bag and leaving them out for collection on a different day help save the planet? Simple – the production of a glass bottle requires essential minerals and a substantial amount of energy, while no minerals and much less energy is required to recycle an existing bottle.
Also, next to nothing is lost in the recycling process so one existing bottle creates one recycled bottle (estimates are that the energy saved in recycling one bottle instead of producing a new one could power a lightbulb for four hours). Meanwhile, a bottle on a rubbish dump never decomposes.
Voila! We are already on the way to saving the planet, the added bonus being that it doesn’t matter how much we drink along the way!
Second up is the issue of where all of our waste will be stored if we don’t recycle.Sadly, we don’t have the option of getting on a spaceship while Wall-E sorts it out…
Plett’s rubbish dump is at capacity and soon general household waste will have to be transported by road to Mossel Bay, with the associated additional costs being passed onto the ratepayers. But recycled waste can be treated locally, so taking the time to sort your rubbish won’t mean that your municipal bill will be reduced, but it will limit by how much it increases.
Thirdly, Bitou Council has for some time been running recycle initiatives with a designated subcontracted collection agent and the free provision of recycle bags. Now recycling is no longer a matter of loading up your car and taking items to a drop-off point, as you can just leave the bags out on your specified collection day and the subcontractor will collect.
Paper, glassware, plastic, tin, cardboard and even electrical goods are collected – you will be surprised how much of your waste can be designated as recycle material.
Once you get involved you will also be amazed how satisfying recycling can be. Why not give your old sight glasses so others can see, your old clothes to charitable institutions, recycle your car tyres so they don’t end up burning on our streets, re-use the same supermarket bags rather than constantly buying new?
Bitou’s water is of Blue Drop-quality, which should encourage us to drinktapwater rather than wasting money on buying bottled water and creating more plastic/glass waste.
Advanced tree huggers even recycle household food waste for energy or compost, and check out their local stores, restaurants, bars, etc., refusing to patronise them if they don’t follow green initiatives.
Recycling means reusing and reusing means less new production and less household waste in circulation – take one look at a sprawling rubbish dump or the trash washing up on our beaches and you will see some of the results of our wasteful consumer culture. The contribution every one of us makes to recycling makes a difference.
Recently Dunes Resort and Dunes Park residents in Keurbooms got together to develop a recycle collection initiative and less than six months later, it is estimated that 70% of all household waste generated is now being collected for recycling.
So whether it be from a desire to save the planet or just to save a little bit of money on your household bills, there has never been a better time to recycle!
L and C Keurbooms (anyone with views on the above can contact the writers at parkrecycle@gmail.com), by email
Source: CXpress