"Self-sufficiency does not mean 'going back' to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food that is organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings... and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully." John Seymour ~ Self Sufficiency 2003

Sunday 14 September 2014

WhoooHoooo!!! Recycling has arrived

WhoooHoooo!!!!   Recycling has finally arrived in Swellendam :)  Paper, glass, plastic and tin :)
Drive down Koringland Street passed the sewerage
farm on your left and SSK on the right,

turn left at the Traffic Dept building
into Russel Street.  At the yield turn right and
travel +/- 150mtrs
Being at the other end of town, it's a bit of a schlep, but worth it.
Look out for Synergy's building...
Synergy Recycling is opposite Supaquick in Russel Street in the industrial area of Swellendam.  They are open Monday to Friday 8 - 5p.m but they are planning on leaving a container so that you can leave them a neat bag of recycling if you pass their premises during non-business hours. Please ensure that it is left out of dogs reach and is rinsed of any "attractive" foodstuff to prevent attracting vermin.

Please - support the recycling depots near where you live - without your support they cannot survive and all your recycling will then end up in landfill once again.

19 comments:

  1. Congratulations! That sounds great.
    My town recycling is only open one day/week, for 4 hours!

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    1. Quinn - Oi - that's short, but I guess it's better than no recycling depot...?!

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  2. We don't have recycling. Used to be, you just pushed your trash off the back of your truck into a big ditch and drove off. When the trench got full, they buried it and opened another.

    Then the State said no more. So now you push your trash off the back of your truck into a shed, and they push it into an 18 wheeler, where it gets hauled to another county and burnt in an industrial incinerator.

    People used to set useful things like tools they didn't want anymore aside, and other people could have them. But the commercial company that runs the dump now gets paid by the ton they haul out, so "scavenging" is strictly forbidden, and everything from new bicycles to useful furniture gets burned.

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    1. Harry - It's a pity that you don't have a similar setup that they apparently have in England - a place where unwanted tools / appliances can be placed. Those in need go and scratch through and see if they can re-use leftover / unwanted iems.

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  3. Yeah! Our county is apparently one of the best in the country. I definitely feel good about recycling our 'usable' trash. We use to have a bin for bottles & another one for cans & now they gave us one BIG bin to put everything in. They even encourage us to put cardboard wrapping in which we were burning as fire starters. Don't worry I have plenty of TP rolls & lint to do that job!

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    1. DFW - Cool - good to hear. Yup, I only found out yesterday about our recycling, and already have three spare bins set up :)

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  4. Congratulations! Anything that keeps things off of our landfills is a good thing.

    We have a recycling center now but back when I was a teenager we had a dump and everyone would take things there. A lot of people would come scavenging and take what they could re-use.

    Funny thing Lovers Lane was close to the dump, so you got to see it all. This is a small town so you had to watch out your parents did not see your boyfriend's car parked there, lol, how did I go from recycling to Lover Lane? :D

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    1. MsB - Bwahahahaha - I'm not asking for details... ;)

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  5. Congrats, Dani! That's wonderful.
    We have a center about 15 miles from us---they are open Saturdays. It's always good to see folks lined up around the block waiting. So many people don't do it and just seeing the weekly piles of stuff collected sure makes one realize how much space that saves in the landfill. It should be mandatory!!

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    1. Sue - I couldn't agree more. Refuse collectors should refuse to collect recyclable material thereby "forcing" people to go to recycling depots ;)

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  6. We now have a top notch recycle system, thanks to pressure from the Govt on local councils who now collect all recyclables. We also have a little 'shop' at our local dump where useful stuff is sold by the workers there. plus we have community Freecycle groups that offer items on line free to collector. And of course our charity shops which sell unwanted items and give the money to good causes.

    Jean
    x

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    1. Jean - I know you do - I've seen it on an episode of Top Gear :)

      Yes, we also have Freecycle here - I'm just chuffed that where I live we now have recycling of all those bottles, newpapers / boxes, tins, plastuic milk bottles, wtc. :)

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  7. oh Dani - congratulations are definitely in order as i know how important this is to you. but sadly, i can hardly remember a time when we weren't "forced" to recycle! back in the city, everyone was given different bins and you "had" to recycle correctly or they would not take your garbage - period! here in NS, my county has the best recycling score of the whole province! we have to separate different items into different coloured plastic bags (which i hate - i wish we had bins) and then when they come to pick up the garbage once a week, if you have the wrong items in the wrong coloured bag, they won't pick it up. then they take it to our county receycling place and all of the garbage is then re-sorted. i love it that everyone is "forced" to recycle but i wish we didn't have to use the plastic bags.

    oh one last thing - you can get a standard black composter for $10 delivered to your door by the nicest man ever. of course, we have 2!

    much love Dani! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. kymber - Canada certainly seems to have it's wits about it. We had recycling in town, and I have sorely missed it here. Now, I am happy again :)

      What is a standard black composter? Do you have 2 black composters, or two of the nicest men LOL (what does J say?)

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    2. bahahahahah! good one Dani! i sent you an email with a pic.

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  8. So glad to hear you have recycling depot! Sounds like you are a tad excited lol!

    We have had a recycle centre for a few years now. They closed our local dump and opened the new centre just around the corner from us. Our recycle waste bin is collected once a fortnight and it is always full, and our weekly garbage bin is mostly empty, so definitely a great improvement :)

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    1. Tania - When ever progress comes to rural areas it's worth shouting about - but RECYCLING!! That's fantastic - as long as everyone comes on board, otherwise it does not make economical sense to the person running it, which means they won't survive, which means we'll lose our recycling possibilities and everything will land up in landfill again...! ;)

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  9. Great news and it's definitely worth it! Ours is actually at the landfill and it makes me sick to see what people throw away. True, we have to keep a variety of containers to presort, but it's so much better than the alternative consequences.

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    1. Leigh - I don't mind sorting - I had the three containers ready within 3/4 of an hour after hearing the news LOL I have missed not being able to sort and recycle our "garbage" as we did in our town house.

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