RE-USE AND REDUCE IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: ACTION YOU CAN TAKE
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ASTE is inevitable but we have to take a circular, rather than a linear, approach to dealing with it. The circular approach would see us re-using waste, repurposing it or recycling it, however, currently as much as 90% of waste is relegated to the waste bin, mostly in landfill, with some being incinerated. In 2017, South Africa generated about 54 million tons of general waste, of which 38.6% was recycled, and 61.4% went to landfill. These relatively promising statistics look much worse when you add our 66.8 million tons of hazardous waste to the equation, making a total of 110 million to 120 million tons of waste a year – and these figures do not include mining waste. When we add general waste to hazardous waste, only 6.3% is recycled with the rest sent to landfills. Cumulatively, we landfill 79% of our waste which, in round numbers, is about 21% “recycled/recovered”. This is disastrous for an economy of our stature and maturity. Currently, 58% of our paper is recycled, 78% of our glass and 75% of our metal. The plastics figure is 43%. Microplastics are a serious threat to our entire food chain.
BY BENOIT LE ROY
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S I M P L Y G R E E N
J U L Y
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