A gift idea, stemmed glasses made out of old cider and beer bottles, fitting perfectly with one the themes of the Summit, recycling, is attracting hundreds of people who are amazed by the simple yet effective idea.
Ian Wilson from the U.K watched spellbound as the bottles took the familiar shape of glasses.
“I’ve ordered four boxes to take back as gifts, I can’t believe it’s never been thought of before. It’s great,” he said.
The people at the British National Recycling Association thought so too. The glasses won the 2001 “Best Product of the Year.”
More than 500,000 tons of glass is used in South Africa and just under half (212,000 tons) of that is recycled each year.
Now the rest of the percentage will not have to die lonely deaths on rubbish heaps thanks to an initiative by a number of players in glass engineering in South Africa.
Called the Green Glass initiative it collects waste glass and converts them into glasses, vases and jugs.
The founding company, Green Glass originated in a garage in 1991. These days the company converts about 25,000 bottles a month out of a small plant in Pelindaba near Pretoria.
During peak selling season’s like the World Summit the company employs about 50 people.
To speed up the process, small container plants able to manufacture 400 glasses a day have been set up. These are being used by entrepreneurs to combat the high levels of unemployment in their areas. Future plans include setting up these container plants in rural communities near tourist destinations like game reserves.
The glasses range in price from R45 (approx. US$ 4.5) for a three set of plain glasses to R120 for the beaded stem variety.
A worker at the stand selling the glasses said they were selling very quickly.
“The cheap cider ones are the most popular but the tourists really like the beaded ones. I suppose we all benefit, they help us by buying it and we give them something to remember the Summit and Africa by.”
© GLOBAL YOUTH REPORTERS PROGRAMME
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