Mpact Waste Management offers KwaZulu-Natal businesses tailormade waste management solutions

In May 2022, South Africa’s leading recycler, Mpact Recycling, opened its recycling operation in the Bridge City Precinct in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal. This will succeed in enabling the Group to service the Northern Coast corridor and creates great potential for Mpact Waste Management.

Bridge City is a catalyst for economic growth and the empowerment of surrounding communities. The new town of Bridge City serves as the social and commercial centre to an area housing a population of over 800,000 people, who now have greater access to work, travel, shopping and business opportunities.

With this significant investment from the Mpact Group, opportunities for recycling SMMEs will be opened up to form and develop small businesses in the area and ultimately continue to contribute to the economy well into the future.

The R150 million project was brought about through close collaboration over several years between the Mpact Group, Mpact Recycling and the Mpact Paper businesses. Construction began in June 2021 and was completed in May 2022.

The development of this world-class infrastructure not only allows for increased collection, sorting and baling of major waste streams, but also creates larger storage space for recyclable materials. Ultimately, this keeps perfectly recyclable products from going to landfill and gets them into the recycling stream quicker.

Mpact Waste Management, part of the Mpact Group, offers tailormade waste management solutions for businesses in the majority of industry sectors across South Africa, including the manufacturing, printing and warehousing industries. Ensuring proper collection, storage and management of packaging waste is critical for building a collection and recycling system that enables a circular economy.

Mpact Waste Management experts are a dynamic team with over three decades of experience providing waste management solutions. The teams operate at over 250 sites nationally, offering tailormade waste management solutions for businesses of all sizes, big or small.

Mpact Waste Management is an accredited member of the Institute of Waste Management and its aim is to help companies navigate the future of waste through its customisable and cost effective waste management services. 

Through collecting and selling waste directly to Mpact Recycling and other recycling operations, Mpact Waste Management will ensure a consistent supply of recyclable paper materials like cardboard and paper to Mpact’s Paper mills. This ensures that these waste products end up in the recycling waste stream, and ultimately in the manufacturing cycle to be processed into new packaging products.

The launch of the Bridge City recycling operation has opened the doors for Mpact Waste Management to expand its footprint from its existing sites in Gauteng and the North West provinces into KwaZulu-Natal.

Mpact Waste Management will now be able to offer its expert waste management solutions to businesses in the coastal region by running a large volume of industrial waste through the Bridge City branch. This will better position Mpact Waste Management to meet the needs of suppliers in the KwaZulu-Natal region.

The additional storage space created through the new state-of-the-art recycling facility means that there is greater capacity for Mpact Waste Management to service more and larger clients in the area. This will result in a greater, consistent and more sustainable demand for recyclables, and therefore the removal of waste from the environment and into the recycling stream, rather than ending up going to landfill.

The main warehouse includes a separate administration and operations centre, which allows Mpact Recycling to relocate its large sorting plant as well as baling machines all under roof from its previous location. Keeping the operation under roof improves general working conditions for contractors and staff and allows improvements to be made to fire detection and fire prevention systems. 

The storage of materials underroof also protects recyclables from adverse weather conditions, ultimately ensuring the quality of processed materials is not compromised and therefore improving the quality of the final product at the recycling mills. It also means that Mpact Waste Management can further close the loop and reduce costs by increasing collection and processing of industrial waste closer to the Mpact Paper mill located in Felixton, KwaZulu-Natal.

The improved design and process flow will reduce offloading and loading times for suppliers and collection vehicles, thereby improving capacity for collections with the existing fleet. The process improvement also reduces risk to workers and suppliers as the congestion around the offloading area can be better managed. 

The large warehouse has also allowed for a substantial Solar PV installation. The initial installation completedthis year provides the facility with enough power to enable “grid-free” daytime operations, thus reducing demand on the available energy. Over time, Mpact Recycling will consider expanding the solar installation and tying into the local supply grid for either resale or wheeling to Mpact Recycling’s other KZN operations.

Watch to see what the Mpact Recycling management team have to say about their new world-class facility.