Nov

2015
Cape Town hub

Greenhouse at Ikhayalethemba made from plastic bottles

Objectives

Raise environmental awareness and reduce our carbon footprint
Raise awareness of recycling and reuse

Summary
Almost every hour, nearly 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped. Plastic bottles constitute close to 50% of recyclable
waste in the dumps. The average time taken by plastic bottles to decompose in a landfill is close to 700 years. Plastic not
only adds to landfill space and takes forever to decompose. Used plastic dumped in the sea kills and destroys seal life at
an estimated 100,000 sea creatures per year.

Report

This month with the help of an eager Construction volunteer we began building a greenhouse at Ikhayalethemba.

A huge part of the task of this was to collect over 1500 used 2 litre plastic bottles for the project. We set up collection
stations in our local community and also at our Education sites including the primary school. We displayed posters to
raise awareness about the project and the importance of recycling. It was great to see the response and get so many
people involved with this big task. With everybodys contributions in just a few weeks we had collected enough plastic
bottles to create our Greenhouse.

As the bottles came in they needed to be washed and prepared. Our volunteers had a bottle washing night each week
which became a fun social occasion. We even put the bottle tops to good use and made sensory toys for the children
with special needs

Upon completion of the Greenhouse we plan to work with local partners to grow vegetables to supply the children.
Local partners will also be able to sell some of the produce to the community. We plan to have lessons with the
Children who can experience the satisfaction that comes with caring for something over time and also a great way to
teach environmental awareness.

We also plan to plant trees at Ikhayalethemba in the near future. Trees are an efficient way to help the environment.
Not only do they provide shade and oxygen, but they consume CO2 at the same time.


Summary
Recycling is an important component of protecting the environment and helping conserve resources and energy,
Preserves valuable landfill space and supports a healthy environment. Recycling is an easy way to protect our
Environment and ensure the wellbeing of our Community for generations to come. The success of recycling depends of
the active participation of every member of the community.