Walker’s Recycling

• Technology › Recycling, avoiding landfill emissions
• Project developer › PACE
• Audits ›

  The 2021-2022 audit was carried out by The Green House – dated 19 September 2022, click on the link below to download it:
  22049 – Walkers recycling audit 2021-2022

  The 2019-2021 audit was carried out by The Green House – dated 21 July 2021, click on the link below to download it:
  21032 – Walkers recycling audit 2019-2021 final

  The 2017-2019 audit was carried out by The Green House – dated 31 October, 2019, click on the link below to download it:
  19009 – Walkers recycling audit Jan 2017-Jun 2019

  The 2015 and 2016 audit was carried out by The Green House – dated 4 September, 2017, click on the link below to download it:
  Walkers recycling audit – Final 2017-09-04

  The first Walker’s Recycling audit on behalf of Credible Carbon was done by GCX for the period 1 January, 2012 to 31 December, 2014.

  To download this audit of June, 2015, click here.

  This audit showed that the project had delivered 1 570 tonnes CO_2.

   

   

   

   

Project description

Nature knows no waste and our urban systems can learn a lot from the manner in which material and nutrients are continuously recycled by natural systems! In a climate resilient economy, there will be no such thing as waste.

Walkers Recycling is a family-run business started by brothers Eddie and Chris Walker at their mother’s Mitchells Plain home. From their residential base they began collecting high-value recyclable material from the CBD in 2005. Whilst initially viewed as illegal ‘waste pickers’, the business has since evolved into a flourishing green enterprise (trading as C and E Logistics CC) that operates with full recognition from the City of Cape Town from an industrial park (click here for the waste service provider accreditation) and employs 10 people, all historically disadvantaged in the South African context.

The business has been collecting waste for a decade but initiated the idea of securing carbon credits in 2013. The project was audited for the first time in June 2015 and is now a recognised part of the City of Cape Town’s green economy.

Audited emission reductions and audit reports

2012: 318 tCO₂
2013: 511 tCO₂
2014: 742 tCO₂
2015: 774 tCO₂
2016: 808 tCO₂
2017: 690 tCO₂
2018: 2 244 tCO₂
2019: 1 781 tCO₂
2020: 831 tCO₂
2021: 2 118 tCO₂
2022: 1 523 tCO₂ 

Total:  12 339 tCO₂

Walker’s Recycling (Pty.) Ltd.) is based in Coleman Park, in the Elsie’s River industrial area. The company operates three vehicles with trailers that collects waste from homes, restaurants and nightclubs for sorting by the team of employees. As green entrepreneurs the company has used it carbon revenue to design and built equipment that separates ferro-chrome from iron in the waste stream, and compresses collected metal into ‘bales’.

Methodologies Involved in Emission Reduction

Estimates of carbon savings are based on the principles contained in the approved CDM-Executive Board methodology for recovery and recycling of materials from solid waste: AMS-3-AJ, including an informal waste sector, a recycling facility and a processing and manufacturing facility.

Project Benefits

The project diverts solid waste from landfill and returns material to the recycling economy. This shift is associated with:
• An increase in recycling
• Support for the circular economy and an increase in the reuse of materials
• Income and job-creation through the on-sale of recycling
• Sustainable job and enterprise creation through waste and recycling management
• A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• Setting a replicable precedent for community-scale dry waste recycling and management solutions

Addressing climate and poverty simultaneously:
The emergence of Walker’s Recycling as recognised green entrepreneurs and a recycling company represents a significant step in the advancement of Cape Town’s solid waste economy and the recognition of small and micro-enterprises and black economic empowerment companies. Walker’s Recycling has grown to prominence without any state assistance.

Walker’s Recycling Project Idea Note

A Project Idea Note (PIN) was drawn up to formalise the project scope with regards to carbon credits, click here to download the PIN.

Waste Service Provider Accreditation from the City of Cape Town

Walker’s Recycling received accreditation in May 2015, click here to download the documentation.