House & Garden
Recycling in Royal Ascot
Please use the glass recycling bin at the entrance to La Camargue for disposal of glass. This valuable facility is available to all residents of Royal Ascot.
In November 2007 Cape Town City Council started a free recycling initiative called Think Twice partnering with the private sector. A pilot programme has been running in parts of Parklands, Bloubergstrand, Melkbosstrand, Pinelands and parts of Helderberg East.
The pilot project is only run in areas where the City does not collect household refuse, but uses contractors. Recycling contractors are paid by the City to collect recyclables on the same days that the refuse contractors collect the normal refuse.
The pilot project has been a success, and the City is now evaluating the programme, also looking at cost implications and the impact on staff and infrastructure. The intention is to roll the programme out wider in the future, but at this stage there are aspects that need further investigation before this can be done.
We had useful discussions with the City and with their private contractor, Waste Plan. The outcome is that, while the City will not introduce the programme here in the near future, we can enter in contracts with Waste Plan to collect recyclables in Royal Ascot.
However, as this will not be part of the City's programme, we will have to pay for this service; a monthly fee of about R40 per household was mentioned (in 2009). RAMPOA decided that we cannot impose further levies on home owners, and will thus not enter into further negotiations with Waste Plan. Individual precincts are free to do so, but to make the project successful, you would need 100% participation from residents.
In the mean time we will continue to get more information about recycling opportunities; you will be informed on this page of any progress in this regard.
There is more information on the City website, click here to open the ThinkTwice page.
The information below comes from the City website and from the Waste Plan website.
Please note: The free ThinkTwice recycling initiative will not be introduced in Royal Ascot at this stage. The details below is for general information only.
Why recycle?
Building mountains of waste
In Cape Town our waste generation growth is 7% a year while our economic growth is 3% per year. We generate 7 000 tons of waste per day.
We officially have a waste crisis and we are running out of landfill (dumping) space at an alarming rate.
If you have a normal 2m x 2m room in your house, and you fill it up with waste all the way to the roof, you will have one ton of waste. We in Cape Town dump 7 000 of these rooms full of waste every day!
We only have 3 landfill sites left with enough landfill space for the next 7 years and by the time that the last landfill site closes down, we would be building mountains of waste equivalent to 7 000 rooms per day.
Global warming
One of the major contributors to greenhouse gasses (the gas in the atmosphere that prevents radiation from the earth to escape that in turn causes Global Warming) is methane gasses. Methane gasses are mostly released from old landfill sites. Can you see how recycling can help to slow down Global Warming?
Recycling saves energy
The materials that you recycle will go back into the production streams and it will save huge amounts of energy and raw materials.
It is the right thing to do!
The rest of the world is doing it, why aren’t we?
The rest of the world is doing it, why aren’t we?
What CAN be recycled.	What can NOT be recycled.
• Paper: Paper, flattened and folded cardboard, newspapers and magazines. • Glass: Rinsed bottles and jars. • Plastics: Bags, rinsed bottles and containers. • Metal: Rinsed food tins and drink cans. • Tetra Packs: Foil lined juice boxes and milk containers. • Batteries.	x Cling wrap or disposable nappies. x Chemicals, paint, toothpaste tubes, motor oil containers, acids and solvents. x Organic waste: Food scraps, vegetable peel, garden waste. x Clothing or shoes. x Wet, dirty or contaminated items.
- Please remove lids and caps from bottles and jars.  - Rinse and empty all containers (a quick rinse will do).  - Flatten all plastic containers and cardboard.  - Prevent glass items from breaking.
How does it work.
In the pilot areas home owners separate their recyclables and place it out in the street in clear refuse bags next to the wheelie-bin on collection day. The recycling company will collect the clear bags before the normal waste trucks arrive.
Waste Plan collects these clear bags and take them to one of their licensed sorting plants (Helderberg Industrial Park, Strand or Maitland, Cape Town) where they are opened and sorted into 17 different streams.
The material is processed, bailed and sold back into the recycling markets. This material is used for manufacturing items like rooftiles, pictureframes, ceiling boards, new plastic bags and so on.