With the Mayor’s ‘Keep Cape Town Clean’ campaign focusing on the importance of keeping our communities clean by not littering, by reporting illegal dumping and by using the waste services provided by the City, it is also important to draw attention to the many private and civic efforts to recycle in the city.

‘The global fight to decrease the pollution footprint of human beings by increasing recycling efforts, diverting more waste from landfills and increasingly finding new ways to move away from single-use plastics, requires stronger partnerships to change the current trajectory of most global cities, as well as Cape Town. The City is committed to working with partners to ensure that Cape Town’s resilience is enhanced and that a more sustainable city is created.

Through its programmes, almost a quarter of the city’s waste is being diverted away from landfill sites. More must be done and the City is looking at enhancing its efforts,’ said Mayor Plato. 

In line with the commitment to partnerships, the Mayor visited Ywaste, an organisation that deals exclusively with recycling through the responsible management of food waste and conversion to compost, thereby reducing the contribution that food waste makes to landfill sites.

Some of waste in South Africa ends up in landfills every year and South African cities are running out of capacity.

Ywaste began in February 2010 with the manufacture and sale of worm farms for residential clients. In nine years, Ywaste has grown into an operation which diverts over 3 000 tons of food waste from landfills every year.

‘I am pleased that there are important initiatives such as this being taken up by companies who are finding innovative solutions to reducing landfill waste. Our landfills have a limited capacity and recycling and repurposing waste is an innovative way to address this challenge.

‘A large metro like Cape Town must think carefully about how waste is disposed of,’ said Mayor Plato.

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Ywaste is part of the Western Cape Industrial Symbiosis Programme (WISP), which is a multiple award-winning free facilitation service to businesses.

The WISP is funded solely by the City and managed by GreenCape. It was initiated by the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) in April 2013.

‘We offer our services to major retailers, restaurants and hotels such as Woolworths, Spar, Grand West Casino and the Table Bay Hotel, among others. We assist them in diverting their waste from landfills. Our mission is to create sustainable waste solutions, to provide sustainable employment opportunities, and to become a global leader in a locally-developed zero waste solution for the continent,’ said Ywaste co-founder, Emile Fourie.