The City of Cape Town is happy to announce that the rollout of Home Composting containers resumed this week in Sub-council 19. The City of Cape Town plans to distribute a total of 600 containers per Sub-council area in the next phase of the home composting rollout. This phase of the programme will run between July and November 2022. A total of 12 600 containers will be issued on a first come, first served basis.

So far, 300 containers were distributed to prospective home composters on Monday 18 July, and a further 300 will be up for grabs at the Fish Hoek Civic Hall tomorrow from 14:00 to 18:00. From here the programme will move to Sub-council 1, with 300 containers available for collection at the Saxonsea City Hall on Monday 25 July 2022, and 300 more available from Blaauwberg Community Hall on Saturday 23 July 2022. The rollout will then move through to other areas. Residents should please keep an eye on the following www.capetown.gov.za/CompostingProgramme to be notified when the programme will be in their area. The schedule should not be impacted by load-shedding.

Residents who would like to apply for a container should please bring along their ID and municipal account. Please note that only single residential households may apply. Education on how to set up the container and make compost will be done at the collection site. Please note only one container will be issued per household.

Promoting home composting is a key part of the City’s effort to reduce emissions from landfills. When organic waste breaks down in a landfill, it produces landfill gas. This gas, made up primarily of methane, is understood to have a global warming potential 25 times higher than carbon dioxide. However, production of landfill gas is avoided by composting the waste. It is estimated that a total of 1 650 tonnes of organic waste was composted from the programme’s inception until the end June 2021. The GHG emission savings is estimated at 2 092 t CO2e (tons carbon dioxide equivalent) for the same period.

‘Since the start of the programme in 2016, we have issued more than 22 000 free home composting containers to residents throughout the city to try and build a composting culture. Composting has a lot of potential to minimise waste and reduce carbon emissions because almost anyone with a small garden can do it. Even if you miss out on a City-issued container this time, don’t let this get in your way.’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg.

Source: City Of Cape Town