Nizam Road Primary School garden in front of the recycling site. The school hopes to develop these gardens further.

Paper for life

Social responsibility programme encourages learners to go green and earn cash

You know the saying, ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day but teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life’? That is the idea behind ECOSERV’s school recycling initiative, which is scheduled to kick off in March 2005.

The result of a brainstorming session between Quentin Hurt, Jean Delo and Lori-Beth Cox, the project falls under the auspices of ECOSERV’s social responsibility programme, whereby the company is assuming greater accountability and responsibility for the community in which they work.

“We decided on a recycling project where we could show the children in our community how to do something on an ongoing basis, as opposed to giving them hand-outs,” says Jean Delo. “The more recyclables the children collect, the more money they earn and the more they enjoy the results. It will make them enthusiastic about recycling and taking care of the environment.”

Nizam Road Primary School and Settlers Primary School are the first two test cases in the project. Success with these schools will determine whether or not the project is rolled-out in more schools in the area.

In the past, Mondi has run the recycling operations for the schools. With one bin at each school, the schools earn 25c/kg mixed paper from Mondi after deducting expenses. Under ECOSERV's plan, schools can virtually double their earnings potential.

“They increase their earnings if they separate their papers,” says Jean. “We will supply each school with bins for cans, white paper, magazines and cardboard and will cover all the associated costs of the bins, labour, administration and transport to the recycling depot. We will save the proceeds for them, produce quarterly reports, and at the end of the year we will give them one lump sum to do with as they see fit.”

Prem Rabichund, Nizam Road Primary School secretary, says his school is keen to run with the project. “It’s a brilliant idea,” says Prem. “Not only does it save the environment but it helps the school financially and heightens awareness amongst our children about the effect that pollution and littering has on the environment.”

Prem says the school is currently earning about R200/month from Mondi for collecting about 463kg/month of mixed paper over a 12-month period. “Our existing bin is full every week. If we separate our paper, we can collect more and will earn more. The sky is the limit.”

Lawrence Vartharagulu, educator and environmental officer at Settlers Primary School, says: “We are excited about implementing ECOSERV’s initiative and hope the children will be enthusiastic about it. It is evident ECOSERV is deeply committed to the community and we appreciate their efforts.”