Hout Bay Waste Barometer How much are we throwing away vs. recycling? In October 09 we took 6 times as many truckloads to landfill than to to the recycling depot ! That’s 675 tons of waste to a landfill in a neighbouring suburb, Muizenburg. This excludes waste collected from industryand illegal dumping. Hout Bay recycled only 104 tons back into the manufacturing stream and 176 tons of compost. Considering most things can be recycled - this is not a good ratio and indicates we’re not doing enough to divert our waste from landfill.We are only 1/6 of the way to our 2010 goal, of Zero Recyclable Waste to landfill. If everyone participates responsibly, we can be the first suburb in South Africa to achieve this. We can do this! Lorem Ipsum Dolor Why is it important to hold the possibility of Zero Waste? Landfills are generating 30% of greenhouse gas emission, polluting the water in aquifers and transporting waste is both environmentally and financially costly. In NATURE there is NO waste. All parts are important, everything is a resource. Our aim is to learn from nature!     As a first step to a Zero Waste community – Hout Bay’s goal is to not throw recyclable waste to landfill and recycle it instead. We are using the approach “each one teach one” to achieve this goal. Why do we need to urgently reduce the amount of waste we produce and then senselessly send to landfill each day? We extract, we produce and we throw away...our future! Quite simply, irresponsible consumption and bad waste management habits cost: The way we humans, as a species, currently live is by producing on a grand scale. Before you take an item off the shelf weighing 1kg, 32kg of waste has already been created. In order to produce goods and food as we do, we extract resources from different parts of the earth and modify environments at great financial expense to those involved and at an even greater cost to our planet. Our methods use a lot of water and fossil fuels, are driving many species to extinction and are damaging and polluting habitats to unrecoverable states. We then need to produce our goods and bring our food to market and so we transport our raw materials and produce to industry for conversion. The process requires more clean water and fossil fuels and once again creates pollution. Once we no longer require the product or its packaging and it becomes useless to us, it takes further resources to remove and dump our waste. It costs the City (our taxes) money to transport to and house stinking masses of waste at landfill sites. When one mixes organic, inorganic and hazardous waste materials indiscriminately, they cannot decompose effectively. At landfill sites waste cannot break down into its various components as it would in nature. The result is the production of harmful and deadly gasses and groundwater which leaches into the air and groundwater.   So, the greatest cost of ferocious consumption and irresponsible waste management is to our children as we rob them of a sustainable future on this planet. Throwing away our resources, as if there will always be more to be had, is slowly eroding the health of the ecosystem we live in. Remember. Do not put recyclable waste in a black bin or bag to be transported at great cost to landfill - place it in your clear plastic bag for recycling collection or take to recycling depot behind the Hout Bay Police Station. Never put garden waste in a black bag or bin.    How do we achieve zero waste?         By purchasing with waste in mind. Ask yourself questions like: Do I really need this item, and what is the waste footprint of this purchase? Was it produced locally and responsibly and will I be able to recycle this product and its package when I am done with it? By separating your clean, dry, flattened non-organic waste from your compostable waste.  By ensuring that all your recyclable waste goes to a materials recovery- or recycling centre. By ensuring that your re- usable goods are re-used.  Take it to: a material recovery facility; a second hand charity shop; a church; a school; etc. By composting all kitchen, garden and other compostable waste: create a compost heap; worm farms produce wonderful liquid fertiliser; trench your cooked food scraps, tissues and food soiled paper (bokashi bins are good for storing these type of scraps before trenching it); and, if garden refuse is too bulky to compost on site, take it too the chipping areas of a garden refuse drop off site IS IT POSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE ZERO WASTE IN HOUT BAY?     YES “Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstact- sustainable development- and make it into a daily reality for all the world’s people.” Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General March 2001 Owning our waste - we all generate it! Waste is bringing us together Hout Bay Recycling/3Rs won the Jet Community award of R15 000 in the Western Cape environmental division. This is a symbol of Hout Bay people working together.  On 16th December Day of Reconciliation, the residents of Agget block in Imizamo Yethu are organising a Cleaning up for Unity.. Zero Recyclable Waste to Landfill  Photo of Malmsbury landfill site 2007 superimposed on photo of Hout Bay taken by Bruce Stephens, local vet and photographer Who are Hout Bay’s partners in waste management?    * Wasteplan - 021 975 1235      www.wasteplan.co.za    * Hout Bay Recycling       021 790 1597 Green Genie  offers food waste compost solutions: 084 809 5969,  tylon@greengenie.co.za Partners at the Hout Bay Drop Off and Material Recovery Facility Hout Bay Recycling and wood and building material recovery  members; City Management Team, Soil & More Reliance;and volunteer recycling mentor, Security will also always be present on site but is not in  this photo. Please support them and encourage the ones who don’t, to get recycling! GREEN STICKERS Lookout Deck Dunes Casareccio Deli Delish The Health Path Mariners Wharf Alpenstube Le Cafein (Mainstream) Baldies (Mainstream) Nap (Mainstream) Deez (Mainstream) Chapman's Peak Hotel Darios Coffee shop Tinswalo La Cuccina The Workshop Papinos Pizza Suikerbossie HB Manor Hotel (Prune) Tobi Coffee shop Taj Mahal - Vic Pirates Thai cafe St Elmos Spiros La Cabane BLUE STICKERS The following restaurants practice zero waste to landfill by not only recycling dry waste, but also composting wet waste: The Health Path Chapman's Peak Hotel Tobi Coffee shop La Cabane Sorting and reusing our waste saves: It costs less to transport recycling material to sorting centres than to send waste to landfill sites. Returning used resources to the production stream cuts out the costs of extraction and landfill to our ecosystem, plus, creates work. Recycling your waste means that you are investing in this planet and in our children’s future. Businesses in Hout Bay that responsibly recycle their waste. Website design and hosting sponsored by AFRICA-INSITES.COM