Generating revenue through recycling
The recycling bin bank, situated on the traffic island alongside the Lakeside shopping centre, is among numerous efforts made by the Trust to raise funds, although it has not been without its troubles. Never a good deed unpunished had been pretty much the case here.
The bank was the brainchild of some of the Trust’s founders and brokered between them, the centre’s letting agents and the City’s Roads Department. Four bins were installed by the Trust in 2001, two for paper and two for glass. But things change and people move, sometimes leading to a breakdown in systems and communations.
For the better part of two decades things there went swimmingly, until two events threatened to upend the initiative. The first was the retirement of our gardener Noel Kuiler, who also kept the area around the bins clean starting in 2011. The second was when M-Pact, the paper recycling company, without notice removed its two bins just before Christmas 2023. (It transpired that throughout the city people were using the bins for general household garbage, including old food and used nappies; so they removed all bins not within secured premises.)
Over that period, what without a caretaker, the place soon overflowed with garbage, glass and boxes. One of the store managers insisted the glass recycling company remove the glass bins, without notifying us. It took several months of “admin” to get the two glass bins back, and for us to organise the cleaning of the area on a twice-weekly basis.
A big admin hurdle was to recover the bins, which we own, from the recycling company, and to co-ordinate the regular emptying of the bins by another company. This is just one example of what goes on in the background of what we do.
Even a ward council representative jumped into the fray, insisting the bins should be removed because they were not needed, given the suburb had a recycling service. When we pointed out they so obviously were, given the continual overflow, they relented. So the glass bins are back and, good faith willing, there to stay a while longer.
Our efforts to keep litter from dumps with recycling are only possible with your support. Help us continue this vital work.