SRC Environmental Affairs Committee making great strides on campus

2010-03-25
Residence Recycling System in Stellenbosch
Matthew Haden and his committee from the Student Representative Council have launched a recycling project in all of the residences of the University of Stellenbosch sponsored by Steinhoff. The project is designed to have large scale recycling taking place in all the residences. The system works as follows: each residence room and section has two bins, one for unsorted recyclable goods (glass, paper, tin/cans, plastic, polystyrene) and one for regular waste (food or other unhygienic material). From there the recyclable material is picked up by WastePlan twice a week. Wasteplan is doing this service for free and is taking the recyclable material to Huis Horizon, a house for disabled people in Stellenbosch. They sort the material and sell it in order to make money. This project has already recycled over a ton of material in its third week of existence. This is a win-win-win situation that will help the environment, provide an income for disabled people and save the university money.

Also, at the same time as this project, the Bokashi system is being piloted in the some of the residences kitchens. This is a Japanese system for organic waste where all food waste can be thrown in one bin and then used as compost at different farms. This systems eliminates the smell and decomposing of the food and allows it to be used for good instead of ending up in the dumpsite. Right now it is being used in 5 of the residences kitchens.

The Green Cup during RAG
This year the Student Representative Council implemented the Green Cup to go along with RAG. This was an attempt to “green” up all of the events and promote recycling and minimization of waste during RAG. All the different residences that participated attempted to recycle all the materials from the different events and do general recycling in the residence during the week. They were also encouraged to have different Environmental Themes in the events. This brought recycling bins and green characters out during Vensters, recycling logos on RAG t-shirts and even floats made out of old newspapers and wine corkscrews. The winning residence pair will be announced at the RAG ball and will receive the Green Cup. Matthew hopes that this will continue to be a part of RAG and that the Green Cup will be a great way to initiate the First-years into the recycling system now set up in the Residences.

Recycling on Campus
The SRC Environmental Affairs is beginning to hatch a plan for recycling throughout the campus of Stellenbosch. They are beginning with the Neelsie and should hope to pour out a system within the next month.