In Cape Town our waste generation growth is 7 % a year while our economic growth is 3% per year. We generate 7 000 tons of waste per day.

We officially have a waste crisis and we are running out of landfill (dumping) space at an alarming rate.

If you have a normal 2m x 2m room in your house, and you fill it up with waste all the way to the roof, you will have one ton of waste.  We in Cape Town dump 7 000 of these rooms full of waste every day.

We only have 3 landfill sites left with enough landfill space for the next 7 years and by the time that the last landfill site closes down, we would be building mountains of waste equivalent to 7 000 rooms per day.

Global warming

One of the major contributors to greenhouse gasses (the gas in the atmosphere that prevents radiation from the earth to escape that in turn causes Global Warming) is Methane Gasses. Methane Gasses are mostly released from old landfill sites. Can you see how recycling can help to slow down Global Warming?

Recycling saves energy

The materials that you recycle will go back into the production streams and it will save huge amounts of energy and raw materials.

It is the right thing to do!

The rest of the world is doing it, why aren’t we?

RECYCLING DAY for SOUTH AFRICA
17 September 2010