MOSSEL BAY NEWS - It seems trying to get people to recycle rubbish is a long and winding road that actually seldom leads to the door of the Mossel Bay recycling plant, to borrow the title from a Beatles song.
"It is a slow process," says Elize Nel, director: Community Services at the Mossel Bay Municipality.
Despite pamphlet drop-offs, awareness campaign at schools, articles in the press and letters from readers about recycling over the past two months, there has been no increase in blue bags containing recyclables arriving at the depot operated by the company,
Greens, which is contracted to Interwaste, which in turn has a contract with the Mossel Bay Municipality.
Nel said: "We have had many awareness and education sessions. We cannot start with the distribution of blue bags in the areas where sessions have not been rolled out, before the whole community understands what the blue bags are for and how to use them, because then the blue bags are simply used as black bags."
By-laws
The owner of Greens, Elmarie Landman, who has a team of staff who sort through the recyclables that arrive in the blue bags at the recycling plant in Voorbaai, says: "The only way to get people to recycle is to enforce the by-laws.
"I was in a meeting where it was said, according to garbage removal, if a household puts out more than two bags per week, the municipality can charge it more for refuse removal. The minute it starts with that, people will recycle." However, she added: "There is the fear people will dump rubbish illegally."
The municipality's senior manager: Waste Management and Pollution Control, Sivu Mtila confirmed that this by-law exists.
He also said: "In terms of the by-laws the municipality may require waste generators to separate waste into different kinds and nature of waste; to avoid the generation of waste or where it cannot be avoided to minimise the toxicity and amounts of waste; and to separate and recover waste with the aim of re-using, recycling and the minimising of waste and to store recyclable waste separately from non-recyclable waste."
Mtila said the municipality was busy with a "concept by-law" that would deal with integrated waste management, where local standards for recycling would be defined.
"The municipality is intensifying its education and awareness programmes. Door-to-door campaigns were held in Sonskynvallei and Highway Park. According to the performance [requirements] for the Waste Management Department, the environmental officers must conduct recycling awareness programmes every quarter in the jurisdiction of the municipality."
Education
Mtila said: "The Department of Environmental Affairs recently also had a two-day waste management in education (WAME) workshop, which educators from various schools attended. Recycling was included in the curriculum.
"Only last week the Waste Management Unit visited Garden Route and Isalathiso primary schools and Indwe High School, where recycling was the key message to the learners. Some of these schools have their own internal competitions with regards to recycling.
"The municipality is forming partnerships with various NGOs in the green economy sphere to preach and promote recycling," Mtila concluded.
Greens owner Elmarie Landman said: "The by-laws must change, but there are not the people to enforce them. There are households that don't recycle at all. I've had so many campaigns. We make inroads with the new arrivals in Mossel Bay. When we see many cardboard boxes, we advise them to recycle.
"We advertise, drop off pamphlets at every house. Small businesses and schools are catching on. Only when the municipality charges huge amounts for waste will households catch on. Already 99% of big businesses are recycling. About 28 percent of Mossel Bay residents recycle.
"In some areas people use blue bags for normal garbage instead of recyclables. In Great Brak recycling is going well.
"There are two or three suburbs in Mossel Bay we haven't started in with collecting blue bags. We'll start next year."
Landman confirms that she gives a report to the municipality every month on tonnages recycled. This can include statistics on different suburbs if the municipality asks for them and or on different items, such as paper or bottles.
"I have been doing this since 2005. There are certain areas that grow in terms of recycling and others that don't." Landman reiterated that she felt the only way forward was for the municipality to enforce by-laws.
ARTICLE & PHOTO: LINDA SPARG, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER JOERNALIS
'Ons bring jou die nuutste Mosselbaai, Tuinroete nuus'
