Thursday, July 31, 2008

Tips for paper recycling in a sectional title housing complex

If you are on the body corporate at your complex, or even if you are a resident in a sectional title complex, consider introducing recycling.

Even if you are living in a complex, it makes sense to talk to your body corporate about recycling your paper.

You can use the income from recycling to offset the running costs of the common property running costs.

Newspaper and magazines are relatively easy to collect from residents living in in a complex. Recycling on a large scale can bring in quite nice money!

Residents can leave a cardboard box outside their unit once they collected some paper. The garden or maintenance staff can move this into a storage area. Once you have enough contact your local recycler and they will collect the paper. Mondi will drop off quite a large paper cage on your property for storage.

However if you are not taking your paper to a buy-back centre, then you will not receive cash for your paper.

Here is where some recycling buy back centres are in Gauteng:
http://www.paperpickup.co.za/buyBack.asp

Be sure that the residents only put only what the recyclers want.
Check out http://www.paperpickup.co.za/tips.asp

According to Engineering News (March 2007):
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=102474

"Hunter says a challenge in the recovery of paper is that only 14% of paper is recovered is from householders and 42% from the business sector. This is in comparison to the national recovery rate of 57%."

Futhermore:

"The low percentage of paper recovered from households is because individuals tend to throw away newspapers, magazines and cardboard."

So here are some paper recycling links:

Mondi Recycling - Lots of recycling options.
prasa.co.za - Paper recycling association of South Africa - Not much here
www.paperpickup.co.za - Local paper recycling information

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

SA to introduce a possible Cabon Levy

South Africa wants to get serious about its environmental commitments. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk briefed the press on Monday 28 July 2008, about the possibility of introducing a carbon tax.

2003 figures indicate that South Africa's green house gas emissions was the equivalent of 446 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
According to figures presented at Monday's briefing, this will rise by 100 million tons over the next decade, reaching about 550 million tons in 2027-28.

With regards to the possible carbon levy, van Schalkwyk mentioned they are studying their options.

Options include moving SA's electricity generation away from predominately coal fired power stations and introducing "mandatory national targets for the reduction of transport emissions".

This would include "stringent and escalating" fuel efficiency standards, promoting a shift towards public transport and the "aggressive promotion of hybrids and electric vehicles", van Schalkwyk said.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Cabon levy on power consumers

Its time to start paying a Carbon Levy on South Africa's electricity production. The article from Business Report mentions that the levy could be 2c per Kilowatt.

The organization Seifsa, which represents up to 2,700 companies, wants the carbon levy deferred. They are saying that since we have no choice in where we are getting electricity from, this tax is unfair. 90% of SA's electricity comes from burning fossil fuels.

Eskom annnounce that there is no Loadshedding

I read this article on IOL.

The good news for businesses and consumers alike is that the stockpiles of coal have improved and that there has been no deliberate power cuts since May 2008.

Furthermore Eskom are planning on spending R46 Billion this financial year to improve infrastructure.

Welcome to Green Carbon SA

Welcome to a blog full of interesting links, tips and ideas which can help the environment.

I am starting this blog not only to try raise some environmental issues but also to show how other people are helping our planet while keeping their businesses competitive.

The blog aims to be practical by providing solutions which can work and will make a big difference.

Please enjoy your stay and come back soon!