This has saved nearly 40 million cubic metres of landfill space, and put paper and cardboard back into the recycling loop as a useful raw material in paper packaging and tissue manufacturing. These 40 million cubic metres would cover 2 411 football fields or 1 708 rugby pitches, or fill 15 900 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In 2024, the South African paper recycling industry recovered 1.2 million tons of paper products. This is from an available pool of 1.95 million tons of recyclable products such as magazines, brochures, newspapers, corrugated boxes, paper bags and office paper.
While a paper recycling rate of 60% is on par with the global average, there are many paper products that don’t get a second life because they end up in dustbins alongside wet and rotting materials or as litter in the environment.
Greater awareness and conscientious action will drive a culture of separating our household waste from recyclables. There are several easy steps we can all take to make sure that our recyclables are not added to the mountains of waste in our landfills but are rather put to good use.
Have a simple separation system. Keep your rubbish and recyclables in separate bins. This ensures that your recyclable paper and cardboard will not get wet or dirty, and will stay in an good condition until it gets to the recycling mill. These can be around the house too; not just in the kitchen.
Know what can and can’t be recycled. Not all paper and packaging products are recyclable. This is because some products have been treated to perform functions and cannot be processed by recycling mills. Certain non-paper materials can cause blockages and damage to paper recycling machines.
Separate different materials. Many packaging items contain a mix of materials such as boxes with plastic windows, notebooks with metal spirals and packaging with staples or sticky labels. You should remove the non-paper elements before putting them into the recycling.
Get it back into the recycling system. If you don’t live in a municipality that provides a recycling collection service, there are few more extra steps you will need to take.
Put your recycling out for your neighbourhood recycling collectors. White paper, brown cardboard boxes, cereal boxes and even used milk and juice cartons will be gratefully received by recycling collectors. Not only are you doing a service for the environment, you are supporting someone’s livelihood. They will also collect other products such as soft drink cans and plastic bottles, tin cans and a variety of plastic items. Find out what they collect and put these in a separate bag for them.
Support recycling collection businesses. There are a number of small business that offer a paid service to collect your recyclables. This will require a bit of research online or word of mouth. These enterprises will usually provide a list of what they will take.
Check your local shopping centre. Some shopping centres and malls have a recycling zone where consumers can drop off their recyclables.
Look for other recycling programmes to support. There are variety of recycling initiatives that help fund several causes, from bread tags and bottle tops for wheelchairs to glass recycling for animal welfare. Check the internet or social media for some avenues.
Small steps by a lot of people across the country will make a massive positive impact on our environment, economy and social conscience.
For more info visit: https://thepaperstory.co.za/
