Recycling

Penn & Teller’s got an episode on recycling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExEVZlQia4 That’s in America and maybe they are correct the way they see it over there, but in SA? Our landfills are not lined, they don’t have methane bleeding systems and the government / municipalities don’t have big recycling plants (that work at a loss). In the episode, they also didn’t mention glass.
There are private companies that do recycle for profit and even pay you for it. Here in Middelburg is, apart from the big metal Reclam business, a company that buys your plastic, glass and paper. You have to separate it and take it to them, but they reward you for doing it. I think it is better, even if it is only a drop, for that stuff not filling up the landfill. Here they use holes left by opencast mines as landfills, so it looks better afterwards, but what about the ground water? Plastic, glass and paper will not have a big effect on ground water and methane, but it is less stuff to work with. Our municipality still works, but on either side, Witbank and Belfast, it is not always working, so garbage collecting is a problem and people start their own dump sites.

Here in Joburg there are unemployed guys who go around on garbage truck day and come ahead of the trucks and sift through everyone’s garbage for anything recyclable they can score some money from… ie: The Reclaim stuff you mention. Truth be told they annoy me no end, but do perform a worthwhile function, I guess, when they’re not jamming up public roads with their carts.

IOW: If you pre-sift and recycle in joburg you’re probably hurting someone’s income.

Here by us we put out two plastic bags, one containing the recyclable stuff like paper, plastic, and glass
and the other the rest.

And there is two different trucks that collect.
Is a nice and easy system. I’m not sure what the recycling truck does with the stuff.
Do they sell and sort it?

The municipal dump is also heavy on sorting the rubbish when you go there. Can take 5 stops sometime
at different skips.

It is precisely for the benefit of these guys that I sort my rubbish into paper, plastic etc. Saves them the trouble of having to sift through it all, and prevents a mess.

I did that… once… they still chucked my bin over to check whether I missed sorting something and left it strewn across the pavement. Now I allow them to sort it themselves - they seem neater about it.

They think you hiding the really good stuff.

I live in a security complex, so it doesn’t happen on my doorstep. :slight_smile:

Only the worthy shall recycle my premium-grade trash!