GARDEN ROUTE | KAROO NEWS - Each month, a leading waste management company in George is diverting an average of 500 tons of recyclable material from the Garden Route landfill near Mossel Bay.
Henque Waste, which collects and processes all types of recyclable plastics, paper, cardboard, glass and metal, provides a daily livelihood to more than 700 waste vendors in George.
Members of the Garden Route Waste Management Forum visited the company's buy-back facility in Rand Street, George Industria, where members were shown the different processing stages of the waste recycling value chain.
These include the sorting, crushing and baling of recyclables into lots, ranging from 500kg to 1 000kg (depending on the material), which are then sold and transported to bulk recyclers in George, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
"The prices of recyclables are dictated by fluctuating market demand. Metal has the highest value, followed by plastic, paper, cardboard and glass," says Douw Bezuidenhout, manager of the George branch of Henque Waste.
The company was established in Riversdale in 2007 by Douw's mother, Charlotte Lamprecht. Within a year, she was awarded Hessequa Municipality's tender to implement a two-bag recycling system in Still Bay, Jongensfontein, Albertinia, Riversdale and Heidelberg. New branches soon followed in George, Knysna, Mossel Bay and Velddrif. In 2017, Lamprecht was voted Petco's Top Woman in Recycling in the country.
"Recycling is more than just waste management. It's about creating a family environment for our staff, cleaning up the environment and loving what we do," says Bezuidenhout.
* Muriel Hau-Yoon is a George resident and a member of the Garden Route Waste Management Forum. The forum is open to all volunteers wishing to make George the recycling capital of South Africa.
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