This is a good return rate but there is room for more, he says. Western European countries use 100kg of plastic a year per person. Australia uses about 75kg and, compared to North America, SA uses just more than a fifth of the amount of plastic they use. There is always scope for more returns, Naude says. Transport costs in getting tons of rubbish to depots is probably one of the major hurdles for entrepreneurs.
Plastic is relatively light in weight compared with glass, for instance.
So you need a lot of it to make up the right volume. Government recently began a drive to bring out regulations to clean up the countryside. Disposable supermarket packets were the first in line for a proposed future ban by Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa. In all likelihood, liquor bottles are next, he warned last month. Beverage cans are no longer a blight on the countryside, though.