Web-Resol Tudo sobre Limpeza Urbana e Resíduos Sólidos!
Kwazulu-Natal is home to the longest recycled plastic boardwalk in South Africa.
The boardwalk in Isipingo, south of Durban, is made from a whopping 17 million plastic bottles – which would have covered about four rugby fields 2m deep. Some 650m long, it was a joint project between the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the environmental group Isipingo Island Institute. The walkway runs through the river estuary and mangrove swamp forest, which is filled with bird and animal life and protected trees. It is made of pliable "plastic wood", mostly used to build outdoor furniture and stairs because, unlike wood, it is resistant to water, white ants and rot.
The project cost about R2.5-million. Karen Maiden, an agent for the Johannesburg company that manufactured the boardwalk‘‘s "planks" said the use of recycled plastic saved at least 50 20-year-old-trees. "Also, that amount of plastic is not going into a landfill site." She said the product worked perfectly in the swampy area as it did not require chemicals to keep it from decaying.
"It was an extremely environmentally sensitive area so you couldn‘‘t have used cement or preservatives, but because it‘‘s plastic, water has no effect on it and the timber-wood had no effect at all on the environment," she said.
Spokesman for the Isipingo Island Institute Anusuyah Singh said the project was a long-time dream of the institute. "It is something that the entire community can enjoy and, being an environmental body, we wanted to use recycled products which were also environmentally friendly"
Artigos Relacionados
Check Also
Waste management poses challenges, but could unlock major environmental and economic gains
Every day, the city of Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest metropolises in the Southern Hemisphere, generates 17,000 tonnes of waste, ranging from large industrial debris to candy wrappers bought innocently at newspaper stands. While this waste presents a serious and urgent environmental challenge, it also fuels an increasingly significant portion of the economy, with benefits extending beyond financial gains. - When we look at developed European countries, many are already recycling between 40% and 50%, with some reaching 60%. From an economic standpoint, both recyclable materials and organic waste hold tremendous value - stated Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary for Environment and Environmental Quality at the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), during the Methane Forum: Climate Emergency Brake, at the Rio Nature and Climate Week. Citing a 2025 report, Maluf mentioned that Brazil literally throws away R$27 billion annually, while municipalities spend significantly more - R$45 billion - managing all this waste, often overlooking the environmental impact or economic potential buried in landfills and dumps. - We spend R$45 billion to collect and dispose of waste in landfills, yet we manage to recycle less than a third of the potential. I believe it will be necessary to review contracts, create performance-based remuneration mechanisms, and pay for both effectively sorted materials and those diverted from landfills - he added. According to the IBGE, 60.5% of Brazilian municipalities adopt some form of selective waste collection, and several initiatives serve as examples of how to manage city waste. In his panel presentation, Bernardo Ornelas, Project Coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb), highlighted Ecoparque do Caju, a national benchmark in waste management and recycling. There, received materials are sorted and can be used for biogas production, organic compounds for urban gardens, or human consumption, in the case of still...