Organic waste recycling has taken off in Gauteng with a number of large businesses working towards maximising their recycling percentages by including food waste into their recycling programmes.
The businesses taking up the challenge
Northgate Mall in Johannesburg, Menlyn Mall in Pretoria and Philip Morris International’s Leonard Dingler factory are three entities which have taken up the using Earth Probiotic’s “Earth Cycler” composting machines to reduce their carbon footprint by diverting food waste from landfills, using on-site composting.
Developed and manufactured in South Africa, Earth Probiotic’s “Earth Cycler” can process up to 5,000kg of organic waste on a flow- through basis per month. Organic waste includes food waste as well as contaminated paper and/or cardboard.
Huge carbon emission savings
“A key benefit of the Earth Cycler is its ability to measure and record input and output loads,” explains Gavin Heron, owner of Earth Probiotics. “This data can then be used to calculate carbon footprint and landfill airspace saving. At the Northgate Mall, between November 2021 and May 2022, the Earth Cycler processed more than 14,000kg of organic waste, which equates to a carbon emission saving of more than 8.5 tonnes CO2e.”
At Philip Morris International’s Leonard Dingler Factory, an Earth Cycler was installed to process both food and tobacco waste. When converted into compost, it is bagged and given to staff to use in their food and flower gardens. To date, the factory has saved 617kg/tonne of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere.
All of these environmental initiatives not only contributed to reducing organic waste delivered to landfills, but also reduced the risk of them running out of space.
Earth Probiotics is a member of the Organic Recycling Association of South Africa, which represents the organic recycling industry and is committed to seeing more organic waste diverted from landfills.
For more information on how to recycle organic waste visit www.orasa.org.za or contact them on info@orasa.org.za
