This is according to Dorota Boltman, divisional director of Rainbow Paper Management who says that not only does recycling save precious resources, but if promoted and implemented successfully it can be used as an economic growth tool. "A UK study conducted by Friends of the Earth found that if 70% of waste collected by municipalities in the UK was recycled 51 400 jobs would be created."
A similar report conducted in the US by the Tellus Institute found that a national recycling rate of 75% would create 1.5 million jobs, of which nearly half would be in the manufacturing of new products from recycled materials. "These significant figures result from the fact that that processing recyclables is quite a labour-intensive exercise and therefore creates more jobs than waste collection and disposal, which conversely utilises heavy equipment that can handle large amounts of material with few employees," Boltman says.
However, it must be noted that in order to experience a huge difference in paper recycling numbers and related job creation, an increased use and purchasing of paper products made out of recyclable fibre must occur, says Boltman. "Consumers must realise that the product they buy and use at the office or home is of vital importance to boosting this industry. If consumers choose to rather spend money on only recycled products, there will be a growth in the need for paper mill production, which will relate to an increase in recyclable tonnages and job growth in every stage of processing and transport."
The call should come from government to set recycling rates and put measures in place to hinder retailers from utilising products that cannot be recycled and rather opt for recycled goods. Boltman says another benefit of job creation in the recycling industry is that there are job positions for people with almost any level of skills and education.
A lucrative industry
Furthermore, recycling jobs are stable and fast growing because there will always be waste given an ever-growing population. "In addition to this, recycling is a very attractive and lucrative industry because there are many materials that can be easily recycled that contain rare or hard to obtain metals for which prices have increased significantly recently. All of these factors contribute to making recycling jobs not only abundant, but also very financially satisfying as well."
South Africa should follow the example of the European Parliament (EP) which recently passed a resolution towards a Resource Efficient Europe with the hopes of paving the way for the European Union to have Zero Waste by 2020. Through the resolution, the EP and European Commission join forces to attempt to bring residual waste close to zero and calls on the European Commission to make proposals to ban landfill in Europe and to phase out the incineration of recyclable and compostable waste by 2020.
