Aurecon has partnered with the City of Tshwane in support of its road to sustainability initiative which strives for a clean and green City and also aligned to the objectives of the National Development Plan 2030.
This initiative involves minimising the amount of waste generated through separation at source at a custom-built, dedicated recycling facility for sorting and dispatching to recycling facilities, thus ensuring less waste to landfill sites.
MMC Michael Mkhari, a Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Agriculture Management, opened the facility and said the City of Tshwane is excited to be partnering with Aurecon on this initiative.
“It creates sustainability by educating not only employees, but entire communities on how to deal with waste. What makes it even more appealing is that it is self-funding, there is no reason why other private companies should not follow suit,” he says.
Aurecon’s focus on sustainability was initiated by a waste minimisation project which started from humble beginnings through office paper recycling in 2014. Since then, the company has expanded its recycling to other waste streams including plastic, cans and e-waste.
As part of this initiative, local IT asset disposal (ITAD) expert Xperien embarked on a project with Aurecon in 2014 where it assisted with the safe disposal of their IT equipment and e-waste.
“We were able to give them residual value from their redundant IT equipment that they then used to empower the previously disadvantaged by providing jobs and a facility for recycling of waste,” says Xperien senior business development manager Bridgette Vermaak.
Aurecon quality, environment and sustainability regional manager: Africa, Charlotte Mpenyana, has a passion for the environment. “The National Development Plan 2030 vision is to create job opportunities and to alleviate poverty and this is exactly what this initiative is doing.”
“As the world evolves, we need to design initiatives to maintain the cleanliness of our cities, so let us treat waste in a manner that is sustainable. Let us all work together to support the city to strive for a clean and green city,” Mkhari adds.