Driving Sustainability Forward: Recycling and Carbon Credits

Did you know? 

• A microwave can be broken down and recycled in a host of different ways, from the copper in the motherboard to the PVC on the cord, to the brass pins on the plug!

• Cardboard can be recycled 10 times before it ends its life as toilet paper.

• Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 1438 litres of oil, 2,3 cubic metres of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy, and 26,498 litres of water. (Florida Tech)

 

 

Essentially Natural seeks to offset carbon emissions caused by transport costs as part of our commitment to the environment. We were privileged to be invited to a behind-the-scenes tour of how some of our carbon credits are spent by Francois van Wyk of the Stellenbosch Community Recycling Project.

We met at The Stellenbosch Community Recycling Project and came away awed and humbled. This is the circular economy in practice. Waste-preneurs collect and deliver recyclable material to the centre, where it is sorted and baled up for processing. This creates income opportunities in needy areas, as well as cleaner environments and less waste in landfills.

This is a 24/7 operation and the picture above is just two days’ worth of collections.

 

How do our carbon credits help?

The money raised as credits is used to purchase more of these cages. The cages themselves are made from recycled metal where possible and they are placed by the waste-preneurs in strategic places in the community (e.g. near schools or shops) for ease of collection.

It is simple math… the more cages that can be distributed, the wider the reach and the more waste that can be recycled.

 

How do we calculate our carbon credits?

Essentially Natural has a tracking app installed on our site, which tracks all our deliveries including distances and parcel weight, and calculates the total carbon emissions produced. We then calculate the amount we need to offset, and we multiply this by 10 because we want our deliveries to be carbon-negative. We then purchase the calculated amount of carbon credits from reputable and audited projects via Credible Carbon.

If you own a company or brand, we encourage you to support local community carbon reduction projects such as those offered by Credible Carbon and other registries. They make the process incredibly easy, and you know you are supporting real projects that make a real difference.