People doing last-minute festive shopping at Cape Gate Mall. File picture: Henk Kruger Independent Newspapers
Cape Town - The City of Cape Town urges residents to be mindful of the waste created with every purchase. Residents have been asked to only buy what they really need, in order to help protect the environment and reduce pressure on landfills.
The festive season is a time for giving, but with more consumerism comes more waste. A high proportion of everything bought during this period will end up in a landfill, often after a short life.
The City is reminding both residents and businesses to shop and operate with waste minimisation in mind.
Residents and businesses have been urged to carefully consider what people buy in order to avoid waste.
The following tips will help people recycle:
Reducing environmental risks can also be achieved by managing the old appliances people are replacing, or packaging waste responsibly.
For disposal of cellphones, computers, fridges, irons, stoves, televisions, etc. the City recommends:
Mayco member for urban waste management, Grant Twigg, said: “Waste minimisation is a very important part of building a sustainable city. Our landfills are quickly running out of space as we throw away more and more items.
“Society needs to change the way we think about waste – from production to consumption. Consumers need to look at buying products with recyclable packaging and making the most of them before considering tossing them out.
“Manufacturers need to be challenged to reduce packaging waste and creating products that will last. It’s about designing waste out of our economy,” Twigg said.
“We urge residents to challenge retailers about their plastic and other non-recyclable packaging, or if items are over-packaged. You have enormous power to effect change through where you spend your money.
“One of the key tools to reduce waste is the circular economy. Instead of using and discarding products, the City and residents now need to come together to keep goods and materials in use for as long as possible, extracting maximum value from them, and then repairing and repurposing when they break,” Twigg said.
“It is only by working together that we’ll be able to keep the City clean and create a sustainable environment for us to live in.”
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