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Mpact is a leading manufacturer of paper and plastics packaging in southern Africa. The Paper business is integrated across the recycled paper-based corrugated and converted paper products packaging value chain and comprises three divisions: Recycling, Paper Manufacturing and Corrugated and Converted Paper Products.
The Plastics business manufactures rigid plastic packaging for the food, beverage, personal care, home care, pharmaceutical, agricultural and retail markets. Products include PET preforms, bottles and jars; plastic jumbo bins, wheelie bins, pallets and crates; plastic containers for the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market; styrene and PET trays, fast food containers and clear plastic films.
The Group employs over 4,000 people in 32 operations in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Mpact Recycling creates a demand for recycled material that effectively enables recycling where it might not otherwise have been possible. The result is a mutually beneficial relationship that benefits the environment and leads to the creation of small to medium enterprises. The company collects approximately 450,000 tonnes of recovered paper per annum and supplies this recovered fibre to the group’s paper mills for processing into recycled-based cartonboard and containerboard for sale to South Africa’s packaging industry.
What opportunities are there for recycling in South Africa?
Paper consumed in homes, schools and offices represents the biggest opportunity to grow paper recycling in South Africa. Householders can discard any form of paper, such as old letters, photocopying paper, newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, books and envelopes, as well as flattened cardboard boxes into the company’s trademark green “Ronnie Bags” for collection in designated areas in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane.
Mpact Recycling’s educational programmes play a big role in educating South Africans from all walks of life about the difference they can make by recycling. The company believes each one of us has the potential to make a change simply by separating and sorting our recyclables. From there, recyclables move to the trolley pushers who sell them onto places like buy-back centres, or they go into paper banks at schools and community centres, or out onto the kerbside for collection in certain areas within Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.
How good are South Africans at recycling? Furthermore, what is the general attitude in the country when it comes to recycling?
South Africa’s National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) aims to see all South African households in the country’s major centres separating household waste by 2016. However, a survey conducted by the CSIR has indicated that most South African households do not know how or what to recycle, or where to dispose of their household recyclables. This fact borne out by another CSIR study that revealed that as much as a quarter of all the municipal waste generated in South Africa comprises mainline recyclables such as glass, paper, tins and plastics. The disposal of these recyclables as municipal waste is compromising the lifespan of the country’s landfills, many of which are running out of space.
Mpact Recycling focuses on providing the mechanisms that make recycling easy – from houses, to schools, to offices, to complexes, businesses and more.
What more should we be doing as South Africans with regards to recycling?
Everyone should be sorting household, school and office waste into paper, plastic, glass, cans and other. This can easily be done by having different coloured or marked containers and by sorting each day as these items are discarded. The balance of the waste is classified as rubbish and goes into the traditional refuse bin for municipal collections.
In the waste paper container you can discard newspaper, magazines, catalogues, phone books, old mail, computer paper, envelopes, gift wrapping paper, cardboard, food boxes, shoeboxes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, as well as paper egg cartons. Keep waste paper clean and dry, as quality is important for a good end product. The waste paper can be dropped off at any of the many “Ronnie Banks” conveniently located throughout the country.
Households, schools, shopping centres and offices can also support their local recyclers or trolley pushers by putting out the other recyclables (plastic, glass and cans) into clear bags for them to easily take on their rounds each week.
Which kind of waste is the easiest to recycle for average consumers (ordinary South Africans)?
As above, waste from day to day living, learning and working environments is very simple to recycle by discarding into dedicated bins.
In your opinion, can some of SA's most successful recycling initiatives be applied elsewhere in Southern Africa?
Already in other parts of Southern Africa, like Lesotho and Botswana, successful recycling initiatives are being replicated. Mpact Recycling, which has branches countrywide, sees ourselves as a partner that ‘Enables Recycling’. Be it through our schools & communities with the Ronnie Banks countrywide; or our Buy-Back Centres or even the small businesses we are involved in. The key is sustainability and ensuring these businesses are around for years to come.
Please assist with stats and tonnages for an infographic.
* Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (PRASA.)** Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA)
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