Members of AST Recycling and the Jackal Creek Estate manager Johann van Niekerk
Recycling company AST Recycling placed an electronic-waste (e-waste) recycling bin at the Jackal Creek golf estate, in Roodepoort, on March 18, in what it says will be the first of many stations nationally.
To help battle the rising tide of e-waste in South Africa, the AST Recycling bin will accept electronic technology items such as cellphones, laptops, general small electronics, tablets, audio and video devices and media players.
Among items not accepted are other general waste items, as well as other electronic devices such as lightbulbs and batteries.
AST Recycling states that although in general, consumers want to recycle e-waste, they may not necessarily know where to go to dispose of this fast-growing waste stream.
The company adds that, as with other successful recycling initiatives, e-waste recycling drop-off points have to be close and convenient for people to use them.
Information technology asset disposal recycling head Rodney Peters echoes that the company is optimistic that this will be the first of many such installations around the country. “There’s a huge gap in the market for recycling e-waste.”
He adds that people know and understand that it is important to recycle and properly dispose of potentially harmful electronic components, but finding a recycling point is nearly impossible. “We are working on getting other estates involved, along with office parks and shopping centres.”
As such, at Jackal Creek, residents already participate in the recycling of household waste.
Estate manager Johann van Niekerk had received a number of requests from among the estate’s 5 000 residents for an e-waste recycling solution as well – leading to the new e-waste recycling bin at the estate, which was launched to commemorate Global Recycling Day.
He says the estate management association cares about the environment. “We are pleased to be part of any initiative that can contribute to making the world a better place. At Jackal Creek, we identified a need for an e-waste solution and, together with our other efforts to recycle paper and glass, this project will have a positive benefit for our environment.”
The AST Recycling e-waste bin is custom designed to securely contain the waste until the bin is full, at which point the recycling company will send a truck to collect the contents.
Being cognisant of issues around data security, AST Recycling states that it has ensured that the e-waste bins are “completely secure” and that once the electronic devices or components are brought in for recycling, they are subjected to full data sanitisation, so that no information contained on them can fall into the wrong hands.
“All hard drives are destroyed, never to be reused.”
In this regard, AST Recycling points out that an aspect that holds people back from recycling their e-waste is concern over data security, even when the machine is dysfunctional or has been erased.
“These concerns are valid but if you use an AST Recycling bin, you can be confident that we will sanitise your device to European data management standards,” Peters assures.
Meanwhile, for AST Recycling, the initiative is not just about doing good business, but about providing a countrywide e-waste recycling solution that will contribute to reducing waste in landfills and reduce environmental harm.
“We are passionate about getting the public to be more responsible about recycling e-waste. By making it easy to recycle electronics, we believe the environmental damage from this waste stream will be mitigated.”