Did you know you can recycle your waste at a number of Engen stations around Cape Town? Now you have no more excuses to dump everything in your garbage bin!

When next filling your tank at a (selected, see below) Engen station in and around Cape Town – you’ll also be able to drop off your waste paper, plastic, glass and tins for recycling. It’s all part of a pilot project by Woolworths, Engen and Nampak.

In addition to food containers such as cooking oil bottles, yoghurt, cream, custard containers, margarine containers, ready prepared meal containers and peanut butter jars, household cleaning agent containers like dishwashing liquid bottles, dishwasher detergent bottles, detergent/fabric softener bottles and many household cleaner containers can be recycled.

And don’t forget that most shampoo bottles, toothpaste containers, empty lipstick and mascara containers can also be recycled.

Most Woolworths stores also have specially designed bins where you can drop off burned-out CFL (energy saving) light bulbs. “Because these bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, they need to be disposed of properly.

Helpful hints to make sure your waste is disposed of appropriately:

• Ensure that bottles, jars and cans are empty.
• Remove metal lids, neck rings and corks from bottles and jars.
• Rinse glass, cans, and plastic containers before putting them into the recycling bins. This will ensure that your recyclables don't start to smell, and decreases the contamination of the materials for recycling.
• Squash plastic, tins and boxes before putting them in the relevant bin.  This means they take up less space, so more material can be transported in one go, which helps reduce transport costs and emissions. 
• Most paper and cardboard is recyclable. You can drop off white office and typing paper, envelopes, faxes, printouts, accounts, junk mail, newspapers, cereal boxes, medicine boxes, tissue boxes, clothing tags, cardboard boxes, cards, magazines, flyers, pamphlets, brochures, catalogues, calendars, phonebooks, egg cartons, toilet paper inners, roller towel inners, notes, till slips, wrapping paper. Remember that paper that is waxed, glued, or plastic- or foil coated is NOT recyclable.

The eight sites are situated at the following Engen garages:

• Sunset Beach, Otto du Plessis Drive, Sunset Beach.
• Edgemead, 7 Edgemead Drive, Edgemead.
• Welgemoed, Jip de Jager Drive, Welgemoed.
• Tokai Service Station, 226 Main Road, Retreat.
• Blackheath, Buttskop Road, Blackheath.
• Motorport, Constantia Village Shopping Centre, Constantia Road.
• Meadowridge, 142 Ladies Mile Road, Meadowridge.
• Paradyskloof, Blaauwklippen Road, Stellenbosch.

If none of these are near you, contact your municipality or a recycling company to find out where the drop-off points or buy-back centres for general waste are. For more info, visit www.recycling.co.za