The Recycle Namibia Forum (RNF), a non-profit, membership-driven organization, is proud to announce that the third recycling collection bin, or igloo, has been handed over to the City of Windhoek Solid Waste Management (SWM) on Friday, 3 June 2022 in Windhoek, in celebration of World Environment Day (5 June).
The igloo donated by the RNF 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-tonne 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 the Development Workshop Namibia’s sanitation point in Samora Machel, run in conjunction with City of Windhoek Solid Waste division. This project has expanded to such an extent that the recycling area had to be expanded. To date, more than 120 one-tonne 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 the community has been actively and effectively collecting recyclables from households across the town, and the igloo offered a solution as a central collection point.
Mr. Gideon Hengari, Section Scientist: Licensing Research and Education of the Solid Waste division at City of Windhoek, 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, Mr. Per Hansen of NamiGreen stated, “We are proud to team up with City of Windhoek and Recycle Namibia Forum to provide an additional and safe collection point for e-waste.”
Mr. 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”.
In the photo below: Making recycling easier with the donation of two collection bins – one for recyclables and the second one for e-waste! From left to right are Per Hansen of NamiGreen, Jose-Luis Pretorius, Chairperson of the Recycle Namibia Forum, and Gideon Hengari of Solid Waste Management of City of Windhoek.
