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. Driving the recycling of steel beverage cans are Collect-aCan's founder members, Iscor, Nampak and Crown Cork. National Recycling Forum chairman Ray Lombard says recycling is definitely profitable.
People make money out of it.
There are more than 35000 people informally employed in steel can collection and many more in the collection of paper waste. There is, for instance, still no recycling of PET plastic bottles for soft drinks. The reason for this, Naude says, is that although the bottles are highly recyclable, the industry is not yet geared to recycle them. Moosa also backs the notion of doing far more recycling than at present. However, recycling in southern Africa is more complex than in Europe and many other countries.