Recycling project expands to Swakopmund landfill

Since August 2015 an average of 45.7 tons of rubbish is sorted on a monthly basis at the Swakopmund Recycling Sorting Plant by Rent-A-Drum – that is almost half the amount of material that is recycled on a monthly basis in Windhoek.

This statistic was revealed in the Agenda of the recent Town Council meeting. Rent-A-Drum made two submissions to council requesting to promote and implement a deep collection refuse removal and storage system, mainly intended for large businesses, as well as requesting permission to recycle material at the Swakopmund landfill site. Both applications were approved.
The Swakopmund recycling project was initiated a few years ago and peaked after Rent-A-Drum erected and commissioned a state-of-the-art Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in partnership with the municipality. The facility was launched in September 2015. Initially the household recycling rubbish stood at 26.2 tons per month – and it has grown up to an average of 45.7 tons. Currently an average of 105 tons of rubbish is sorted per month in Windhoek.
Rent-A-Drum recently applied to council to do recycling at the landfill. Even though the municipality has to date handed out 6 000 wheelie bins, specifically designed for recyclable material to various households, much of the material still ends up at the landfill. Council gave Rent-A-Drum permission to demarcate an area on the landfill site to accommodate the storage of recyclable materials.
Additionally council approved the implementation of a deep collection refuse removal system (DCS) as well as a reduced levy for the removal of refuse at all businesses that implemented (DCS). The deep collection system is also known as the Molok system and has been successfully introduced to some major Namibian towns, including Walvis Bay. “The system has proven itself to be the acceptable system for major new developments and businesses such as the Dome, Strandhotel, Platz am Meer, Swakopmund Hotel,” etc,” it states.