HOSPITALITY group, Africa Albida Tourism (AAT) has expanded its Victoria Falls Recycling Project (VFR) to include glass.
It used to deal with paper and plastics.
The VFR was launched in March 2018 by AAT in partnership with Greenline Africa, Victoria Falls Municipality and PetrecoZim to help protect the environment around the iconic Victoria Falls.
In an interview with NewsDay Business, AAT operations manager Andy Conn said: “Victoria Falls Recycling’s glass recycling is operating at Africa Albida Tourism’s Victoria Falls Safari Lodge where a workshop has been established, from which beautiful upcycled glass craft products are being created.”
Conn said the remainder of VFR was currently not operating due to land issues.
“The remainder of the Victoria Falls Recycling project is currently not operating as the land on which it is to run is yet to be finalised,” he said.
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According to Conn, the project was seriously affected by COVID-19 after hotels were closed during that period.
“COVID-19 sadly sparked a number of enterprising initiatives to falter. The Victoria Falls Recycling project, which had gathered much momentum from 2018 to 2020, also lost funding as hotels were mostly closed and have taken some time to recover,” Conn added. AAT reported that so far, the project collected and baled more than 24 tonnes of waste for recycling in its first nine months of operation.
The waste contained 9,4 tonnes of paper and card, 8,8 tonnes of plastics, nearly three tonnes of glass, 1,2 tonnes of kaylites, 926kg of cans and 730kg of Tetra Pak packaging.
The AAT blog revealed that the hospitality sector also benefited from the project through the waste that is reused to make various products that can be sold to tourists.
“Victoria Falls Recycling’s vision is to collect, sort and bale waste for onward sale to re-users of the waste; to collect waste that can be pelletised and then recycled into rubbish bags; and to upcycle waste to use it for products such as handmade paper, furniture, artefacts and other items to sell to tourists in Victoria Falls,” the projects co-ordinator Charlene Hewat said.
AAT reported that the recently-refurbished Victoria Falls Safari Lodge features recycled materials.