Boost your packaging recycling know-how this Clean-Up & Recycle Week

The South African National Bottled Water Association (SANBWA) is challenging all South Africans to get both physical and cerebral this Clean-Up & Recycle Week.

Clean-Up & Recycle Week takes place between September 12 and 17 with National River Clean-Up Day falling on September 14, Recycling Day South Africa falling on September 16, and both International Coastal Clean-Up Day and World Clean-Up Day falling on September 17.

“Get online at http://www.cleanupandrecycle.co.za and find out where and how you can help to make a significant impact to our outdoor environment – the parks, the beaches, the trail runs, the pavements, the sporting grounds, the rivers and the lakes we all love to use,” urged SANBWA CEO Charlotte Metcalf.

That’s the physical part of SANBWA’s challenge. Metcalf also wants South Africans to take the time to educate themselves about waste and realistic strategies for overcoming it.

“I’d welcome it if South Africans took the time during Clean-Up & Recycle Week to read the most current research and literature about the true environmental cost of the packaging we use, and then critically consider whether strategies like outright bans are the right path to take,” she said.

Metcalf pointed to a number of ‘sensible reads’:

1. https://plasticsparadox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/The-Plastics-Paradox_ENG.pdf (and a review here: https://www.plasticstoday.com/materials/two-new-books-plastics-two-different-stories)
2. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/chemicals/our-insights/climate-impact-of-plastics
3. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-19-focus-on-single-use-plastics-ignores-the-greater-hazard-of-microplastic-contamination/
4. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-16-why-biodegradable-packaging-might-not-actually-be-biodegradable/

“We all love to complain about packaging waste. And the volume of it, particularly on our beaches and in our rivers, much of it plastic, distresses me. But knee-jerk reactions like complete bans, are not the answer.

“Additionally, biodegradable plastics, glass and metal alternatives – depending on their application – could cost the environment more than existing packaging. People must think for themselves and not blindly follow trends and movements.

“A holistic strategy that results in investing in solutions that encourage behaviour change coupled with the implementation of considered, well-thought through new technologies is much closer to the answer.

“But, as a nation, we’ll only make those choices if we prepared to understand the problem, accept that there is no such thing as a ‘silver bullet’, and then put the effort in to drive the change.

“That’s why, this Clean-Up & Recycle Week, SANBWA asks you to get physical and cerebral: flex your muscles and your brain,” she said.