Help us look after our our country by recycling and limit the impact made on our planet.
FoodBank South Africa has, for many years, worked hard at rescuing quality, edible food and redistributing it to those who need it most. We also focus on saving our environment by preventing this food from ending up in landfill sites. It is estimated that food waste accounting for 7 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions
Throwing food out wastes all the resources required in the growing, processing, transporting and storage of the food. Each year FoodBank South Africa rescues up to 4 million kilograms of food which may have ended up in landfills, this food comes in different packaging materials such as glass bottles, cardboard, cans and plastics. Most of these different packaging materials at some point will end up in landfills.
Saving the environment is very important to us. You can recycle almost anything these days from cans, glass, plastic, cardboard and paper to electronics. Every person can contribute to the restoration of our environment.
Here are a few practical tips we’ve found to help you recycle:
There are many businesses that will buy your recyclable materials from you, as well as recycling depots where you can drop off your recyclable materials. It requires little effort on your part, but it’s for the health of the planet, which affects us all.
- Recycling aluminium cans
Did you know that a single aluminium can is estimated to take up to 200 years to biodegrade? Aluminium cans are 100% recyclable and can be manufactured back into new cans or other products. We don’t need to make more of them; we can just recycle the ones we already have.
- Recycling glass
Many companies who sell glass products will pay you to return the used glass bottles, such as cool drink manufacturers and liquor stores. A glass bottle is estimated to take 1 million years to biodegrade, and that’s just one bottle. Glass can also be 100% recycled, so please collect your glass and recycle it. Every little bit helps.
- Recycling Paper
Paper recycling is possibly the easiest to do. Many schools and corporates have become involved in the collection of recycling paper. You can recycle by printing on already recycled paper, or use a single piece of paper more than once
Although paper doesn’t take as long to biodegrade as glass or aluminium cans, paper represents one of the biggest components of solid waste in landfills. Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing new paper.
- Recycling food
One third of all food produced in South Africa ends up in a landfill. You can help cut down on the environmental impact by creating your own earthworm farm or composter with your vegetable cuttings and left over food. Consider giving food away to neighbours or those in need before it expires, instead of throwing it away.
- Recycling E-waste
Technology is constantly changing and everyone upgrades to the new version as soon as it’s available, but what happens to the old version? Now you can donate old technology to charities as well as recycle certain obsolete machines when they start to degrade.