Nearly 50 000kg's of waste deposited at Brightwater for recycling

"Thanks to the amazing support of Joburg's residents The Brightwater Commons' campaign to get the community living a "greener" lifestyle has been a resounding success with nearly 50 000kgs of recyclable waste deposited at the centre in just over two months," says Francois du Buisson, Brightwater's marketing manager.

On October 20 last year Brightwater Commons, which is committed to implementing sustainable measures and retrofitting the centre green, launched its "The Green solution to your lifestyle blues" promotion aimed at encouraging people in the area to join them in recycling and contributing to saving the planet.

While the campaign was intended to promote an environmentally friendly way of life, persons who participated in the promotion, which ended on December 31 2008, also had the opportunity to enter a competition in which one person would win R100 000 for stashing their trash at The Brightwater Commons.

To participate in the project residents needed to open a Green Bank "account " at the centre by making a waste deposit. "We are thrilled with the response from the community. From day one people were bringing their waste and opening accounts with the end result we issued over 1500 Green Bank Booklets, which surpassed our expectations," adds Francois.

Not only did the local residents open these accounts, but hundreds saw the campaign through making regular waste deposits and also the necessary withdrawals (making purchases, for R50 or more, at any of the stores in the centre for which they received a debit stamp) to submit their completed booklets to the bank manager for entry into the competition and the R100 000.

One environmentally friendly resident, Dee Cleaver of Blairgowrie, was overjoyed when contacted by Francois to say the centre's auditors had drawn her Green Bank Booklet to win the R100 000.

"This is unbelievable! I have always recycled waste but this promotion made me obsessed," says Dee who roped in her domestic worker, Selina Mata, gardener, Phineas Pebene and a group of friends to get involved. "For those who couldn't drop their waste at my place I would even go to their homes to collect before making a deposit at Brightwater," she adds.

Not only does Dee say it feels good to have contributed to saving the planet but it's also great having some extra cash in these tough times which she can use to help those less fortunate.

"I am keeping R10 000 and the rest I'm giving away to a few causes that are close to my heart and to those who helped in my recycling drive," says the generous recycling dynamo.

She also went on to thank Brightwater Commons for this fantastic initiative which has not only meant a great windfall for her but has made recycling waste more accessible. "With deposit bins so close to home and situated where I often shop it is really handy," says Dee who will continue depositing her waste at Brightwater.

To encourage tenants to participate the centre also gave away R30 000 to the store that embraced the initiative, started separating waste and recycling to contribute to better waste management on site.

Having previously not recycled, The Bright Water Spur enthusiastically showed its support and was rewarded with the R30 000 prize. Speaking after receiving the cheque, Spur's Robin Quinn said, "This campaign got us to change our mindset and once we got started it became quite easy. We are also more aware of products that can't be recycled and are looking at substitutes."

"Hats off to Brightwater's management for this initiative and we will be working on finding other ways in which we can be more environmentally friendly."

A surprised Justin Needham from Resolution Recycling the company responsible for removing the waste from the centre said, he cannot believe the positive reaction from the community and the extent of the recoveries made at Brightwater Commons.

By the end of the campaign a total of 18 148 kilograms of paper, 4 700 kilograms of plastic, 2 271 kilograms of metal, 19 256 kilograms of glass and 2 450 kilograms of cardboard was removed from the centre.

"This campaign shows that South Africans are becoming more conscious of their responsibility towards combating the destruction of our natural heritage and we believe that even though our "The Green solution to your lifestyle blues" promotion is over the community will continue to deposit their waste at Brightwater in the future," says the centre's marketing manager.

While recoveries in January have not been as high as before Christmas, Francois's faith in the community seems to be well founded as Jozzie residents are still depositing their waste at the Commons proving waste collection banks are a necessity in the area and will continue to yield good recoveries.

PS: this doesn't mean that we are stopping here!!!! The Recycling program will continue so we would like to encourage all of you to keep up the good work and lets make Randburg, Joburg, South Africa and the rest of the planet a cleaner and better place to stay!!

Regards, The Marketing Team.

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