METPAC-SA ENCOURAGES HOUSEHOLDS TO PRACTICE MINDFUL RECYCLING
Johannesburg, 28 August 2017. MetPac-SA, the new industry body representing
the interests of the local metal packaging industry, will be joining forces
with the various packaging streams in South Africa during the month of
September to encourage households to practice mindful recycling as part of
Clean-up and Recycle SA week (11-17 September 2017).
“More than a third of all the aluminium
currently produced globally originates from old, traded and new scrap. The high
intrinsic value of metal scrap has always been the main impetus for recycling,
independent of any legislative or political initiatives. In addition to this
obvious economic dimension, growing environmental concerns and heightened
social responsibility, have served to boost recycling activity in order to
conserve resources and to avoid littering,” says Delanie Bezuidenhout, CEO of
MetPac-SA.
Whilst South Africa boasts an already impressive recovery rate of around
72% for used beverage cans, it believes that more can be done to divert other metal
packaging such as aluminium foil, containers and empty tin cans from landfill.
“Whilst many households in South
Africa do excellent work when it comes to recycling their beer and soft
drink beverage cans
thanks to successful school competitions run by Collect-a-Can, we believe that this
is just the tip of the iceberg. Our waste
management partners such as WastePlan and The New Reclamation Group confirm that they also readily accept and recycle metal food cans and
aluminum food packaging at their commercial sites, and that they have sorters
on-site to separate the different recyclable commodities,” Delanie says.
“Although metal
packaging is highly recyclable and we are getting significant volumes, the
biggest problem we are facing is food contamination” says Janvier Uzanyenayezu,
Assistant Manager at the Kraaifontein MRF. To this end, MetPac-SA reminds
households to wipe clean or rinse their recyclables in used dishwashing water
after use for the sake of hygiene and to ensure that the post-consumer
materials are recoverable and offer value to recyclers.
“The metals packaging economy is
a circular economy, as the resources used during the manufacturing process are
not actually consumed during a lifetime, but simply re-used indefinitely. Therefore,
their life cycle is not the traditional “cradle-to-grave” sequence, but rather a
renewable “cradle-to-cradle”, Delanie emphasizes.
She adds that the export market
is another major end-user of scrap metals, as South Africa’s ferrous
scrap exports totalled 644,000 tons to countries such as India, China and Pakistan last year alone.
Metal packaging comes in a wide range of sizes – from a small can for tomato concentrate, to a steel drum for bulk tomato transport, and everything in-between. It has a high recycling value and is regarded as one of the most recycled packaging materials worldwide.
Our vision is that zero metal
packaging should end up in the environment. With
the help of South Africans, we can achieve this target and help develop a
strong, sustainable recycling industry,” Delanie concludes.
For more information, visit www.metpacsa.org.za