Suburban
A recycling materials collecting company, the City of Harare and the Environmental Management Agency have established a recycling centre for Emerald Hill at Blue Lagoon shopping centre in an effort to help the community reduce the amount of garbage output in the suburb.
Suburban Reporter
The recycling scheme began in May this year and has been urging residents to make use of the centre and play their part in reducing the amount of garbage in Emerald Hill.
So energetic are the sponsors of the venture they are even publishing a free monthly newsletter to highlight the advantages of recycling to the residents of the area and the progress the scheme is making.
EMA, the City of Harare, Mary Wazara who collects and makes garbage bags from the recyclable material and Lantre Enterprises’ Emmanuel Masuku, who manages the centre, are the strategists behind the initiative.
“Please will you the community bring your recyclable material (no garbage thanks) to us at Blue Lagoon Shopping Centre and Emerald Hill Recycling Scheme will sort it out into types, bag it and sell.
“It is a free way to reduce your garbage output. No need to pay someone to come. The concentration of materials (it is not waste) makes it more fuel efficient (cheaper) to deal with,” reads the July issue of the Emerald Hill Recycling Scheme newsletter.
It added that recycling keeps vagrants from ripping up their garbage bags to take things from them and leaving some mess on the road verges.
The EHRS newsletter said recycling was also good for the environment for numerous reasons. The scheme has three employees while Masuku who can be contacted on 0772 475 318 or [email protected] manages it.
“Initially, the scheme needs to collect and record amount being brought in to measure ‘flow’ and arrangements with those who will collect and pay for the material for re-use. This is somewhat speculative as we all expect growth as the scheme gets known and more people bring materials for sorting and selling,” reads the newsletter.
An official opening penciled for this month, as things are confirmed, is expected to be held and set the scheme on a firm path.
“CoH and EMA are both in this to develop a ‘model’ which, perhaps with some changes and modifications, can be reproduced in other suburbs, and maybe beyond to other towns and cities. So your assistance to make this a success, along with your feedback, may have the effects across the country.”
The newsletter lists the following as some of the recycling tips for residents:
As you take recyclable material out of your garbage (it is much easier and cleaner to do at the source before the material gets mixed in with waste), you will notice a lot of it is bulky like PET bottles or aseptic milk containers, pizza boxes. As this happens you will notice that in your garbage, the waste will be much less. What you throw away will be seriously reduced, so it will be much easier to get past the missed refuse collection day.
And the staff at the scheme can take the material from what you bring faster, cleaner and more efficiently than those scavenging at the dump.
When Covid-19 eases and you can have a big weekend party, don’t take all the empty bottles afterwards to some side of the road or dump them. They are not garbage. They are material which can be re-used and will benefit the country in a general way by recycling them, and will benefit your neighbours (and their car tyres) and will benefit specifically and individually the scheme and all who work there.
Recyclable materials include the seven types of plastic, glass, metal, paper (cardboard), aseptic containers (UHT milk containers).
