On 9 October 2012, we officially launched “ACC Recycles” — a new program to reduce campus waste. The program was launched with an educational seminar on reducing, reusing, and recycling and a tour of our recycling collection point on campus. Staff members S’kumbuzo Matisa and Rachael Carter led the seminar and organized the program with a local recycler in Matsapha.
Though staff, students and residents on our campus are generally good about reuse — and finding new purposes for things — waste is a constant challenge on campus. Most of our rubbish regularly was burned. In an effort to find ways that have less negative effects on the physical environment and participate in local trends toward recycling and environmental stewardship.
We have partnered with a company in Matsapha, Swaziland that provides large collection bags and comes to our campus regularly to pick up the recycling. This recycling company currently does not charge us for this service but generates its revenue through the recycling of the products. Students and staff have been encouraged to recycle all plastics, metals, paper, cardboard, and glass. In addition, raw food scraps and peels are being collected and put into renewed compost piles for the gardens — furthering reducing rubbish on campus.
The psalmist wrote, “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” At ACC, we want to model and teach responsible care of God’s resources and how we dispose of items when we are done with them. The ACC Recycles program helps us accomplish this goal.
