Isuzu Motors South Africa is striving to mitigate plastic pollution and in line with this year’s World Environment Day theme, Beat Plastic Pollution, Isuzu reached out to its employees to encourage them to beat plastic pollution in their personal lives.

The automaker asked employees to bring a bag full of plastics and in return for their plastic waste; they received a reusable shopping bag.

However, beyond World Environment Day, Isuzu continues to drive a culture of reduce, reuse and recycle. It sends no waste to landfill sites and to date the company has recycled more than 96% of its waste generated at its four sites in Port Elizabeth.

Waste as a resource

The small percentage of left-over waste that cannot be recycled (both hazardous and non-hazardous) is then sent to an energy recovery facility and is used as alternative fuel for a cement kiln process.

“We regard waste as a resource that is able to create secondary and tertiary employment. Approximately 30 people are based at our facilities from different recycling organisations while many others are employed at recycling companies across the city, creating furniture, plastic goods and polystyrene commodities,” explains Ncedisa Mzuzu, Environmental Manager at Isuzu.

Most of recyclable tenders are awarded to local small to medium businesses including a missionary centre. The missionary centre is not charged for the recyclable material, instead, they boost their income stream to support their bigger cause.

Entrenching environmental management

“Respecting the environment and ensuring sustainable solutions is fundamental to our business philosophy,

“It is now our responsibility to educate our employees about the impact of plastic on the environment and on a personal level they, too, can reduce their plastic usage and dispose of it more responsibly,

Our waste separation stations in the car parks, enable employees to bring their separated garbage from home and dispose it into the relevant waste streams,” said Mzuzu.