The City of Cape Town’s Waste Exchange programme, IWEX, is proving to be an invaluable resource to local entrepreneurs and industries.
Integrated Waste Exchange (IWEX) is a free online system that enables waste generators and users to exchange waste materials. Operating on the principle that ‘one person’s garbage is another person’s gold,' IWEX facilitates the re-use of waste and reduces the pressure on Cape Town's landfill space.
The service is freely available to anyone who generates or uses waste, including companies, individuals, institutions, schools, NGOs and community groups.
Mark Fanner, an artist and ‘waste user’ from Luna Designs, a company that uses waste wood planks, door and window frames to make rustic picture frames, says: ”We take about 4.5 tons of wood out of the waste stream a week, and use slightly tatty wood that has no other useful purpose, wood that’s full of paint and nails, odd bits and pieces that would normally go into the tip.”
When his usual waste sources recently started to get a little low, he turned to IWEX, where he met Angus Ryan from the waste management company Return on Environment (RE) a potential supplier.
“Most industries have a unique type of waste,’ says Angus, ‘for which we at RE try to find an outlet.”
Although RE has not yet been able to find the right wood for Luna Designs, it has instead sourced exactly the right packaging for its increasing export market.
“When Angus came into our lives, we were at the point of committing to an unsatisfactory arrangement of buying assorted-sized (and fairly expensive) recycled-paper boxes,’ says Mark. ‘Exporting in non-standard box-sizes is not ideal, but it was the best we could do, other than the far more expensive option of buying new boxes for packaging our exports.”
Angus’ contact, on the other hand, has a guaranteed high-volume supply of clean, used boxes, in just the right shape and size, at a fraction of the cost of new boxes.
“Through IWEX we’ve neatly solved the whole problem,” says Mark, “and saved a huge amount of money.” “Recycled boxes would usually have gone to pulping, to be recycled in a traditional fashion,” adds Mark. “So we’ve taken one step out of that process, meaning greater energy-efficiency as well as relief to Cape Town’s landfill.
‘It’s just one example of what can be done though the concept of waste exchange – and that’s what IWEX is all about, finding these kinds of connections.”
And, PS – Luna Designs is still looking for wood!
Here’s how IWEX works:
Visit www.capetown.gov.za/iwex to register on the system. This will allow you to list any waste materials you'd like to exchange and contact others whose waste you'd like to obtain. You’ll receive an automatic notification when someone wants your waste material.
For more information visit: