Staff Reporter
The Recycle Namibia Forum (RNF), a non-profit, membership-driven organisation, handed over a third recycling collection bin or igloo to the City of Windhoek’s Solid Waste Management (SWM) division on Friday, 3 June 2022, in celebration of World Environment Day (5 June).
The igloo will form part of a “collection hub” to be set up at the offices of SWM in the Northern Industrial Area. This will make it possible for residents and businesses in the area to correctly dispose of a variety of items, which includes recyclables, household batteries as well as e-waste. The e-waste bin was kindly donated by fellow RNF member, NamiGreen.
The RNF sourced three recycling igloos in early 2020 as part of its commitment to enable communities to have a collection point for their recyclables. The igloos are ideal in that they can hold a one-ton bag for mixed recyclables, and it is built in such a manner that the contents cannot be contaminated by adverse weather conditions or blown out of the container.
The first RNF igloo was donated in March 2021 to Development Workshop Namibia’s sanitation point in Samora Machel, run in conjunction with the City of Windhoek SWM division. This project has expanded to such an extent that the recycling area had to be expanded. To date, more than 120 one-ton bags of recyclables have been filled by Ms. Beata Gebhardt, who runs this recycling component, and her team. The second igloo was donated to Henties Bay Recycling in September 2021, given that this community has been actively and effectively collecting recyclables from households across the town, and the igloo offered a solution as a central collection point.
Gideon Hengari, Section Scientist: Licensing Research and Education of the SWM division, confirmed that the two bins came at a very opportune time to form part of their collection point for recyclables at their office premises.
On the collection of e-waste, which is the fastest- growing waste stream, Per Hansen of NamiGreen stated “We are proud to team up with City of Windhoek and the Recycle Namibia Forum to provide an additional and safe collection point for e-waste”.
Jose-Luis Pretorius, chairperson of the RNF, reiterated that partnerships between the various members of the RNF ultimately assist and enable the community in “doing the right thing” and responsibly dispose of their waste, which highlights the RNF’s slogan of “Taking hands today for a cleaner Namibia tomorrow”.