Benchmark Recycling

Using Crypto Currency to Kickstart Efficient Waste Management in Our Cities

By: Chris Mutale; 25th June, 2018

Benchmark Recycling is launching businesses in the recycling space by ensuring cities in Africa are making more efficient use of the resources they consume. Benchmark Recycling aims to achieve this by harnessing the power of crypto currencies to raise robust capital which is then channelled into systems that will help to recover materials for reuse instead of landfill dumping. This kind of system is called a Material Recovery Facility or MRF, pronounced as a murf.

A material recovery facility or MRF receives waste the same way that a landfill does. The waste is fed into the entire process by separators that separate the materials based on weight and dimensions. The MRF then allows for men and women to do the final high-quality separation into specific categories, driven usually by what the market wants to buy. The following highlights the advantages of building MRFs;

to get the materials needed by industry such as paper and plastics to industry at a fraction of the cost in comparison to the cost of importing raw material from overseas

to create hundreds of decent income jobs allowing for men and women with little or no education to have an income that catapults them into being economic players within the urban economy,

to create numerous small businesses around the process of recovering materials in areas such as logistics, composting, bio energy, waste to energy, catering, business supplies, manufacturing, and trading.

Reduce the damage to the environment by redirecting thousands of tonnages of waste from being dumped in a landfill to being used in energy and manufacturing industries.

Understanding the Need for Recycling

The city of Johannesburg is running out of landfilling space. Historically there was six (6) landfills in Johannesburg operating to receive the city’s waste. Currently only four (4) are operational. With a consistent increase in the waste we produce over the years, there is no longer a viable solution for the waste coming out of our businesses and our homes; this necessitates innovative ideas of funding and support for waste recovery projects around the city. Any tonnage of waste that we can stop from going to landfill has a huge bearing on the sustainability of the municipality to continue its proper function without charging its citizens an arm and a leg in rates and taxes. We know now that we are running out of landfill space and our environment is begging for efficient waste management in order reduce the carbon foot print. A MRF allows us to achieve this goal while at the same time creating jobs and empowering thousands of families to earn a living and be part of a new ecosystem.

Johannesburg metro alone currently dumps approximately 7000 tons of municipal solid waste every single day into the landfill; a staggering 2.5 million tons on annual basis. The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has estimated the value of the waste we are dumping to be approximately R50 billion on an annual basis. Our landfills in the city have a maximum capacity of 6–10 years before we can no longer use them.

The alternative immediate solutions considered are either to build new landfills at an approximate cost of several billion rand per landfill, and thereby continue to damage our environment making it unresponsive and unproductive for use by future generations; or rail the materials at a mammoth cost to rural communities and dump it there to damage the environment far away from where we are, and perhaps let the non-urbanites sit with the problem.

None of these solutions make any sense considering the cost to the municipality and implication on the environment. The seeming lack of information as well lack of leadership to deal with this issue means that we are still discussing ideas that are not sustainable. While initiatives like separation at source exist, whereby basic separation is encouraged in the home — there are no real commercial frameworks to ensure the exercise is a success. There is no real benefit for separating in the home and even if the separation at source is eventually achieved, there are no MRFs to uptake the materials and package them for industry.

The Benchmark Solution

Benchmark International owns a crypto currency named Benchmark Token or simply BMK, which is investing in a series of MRFs around major cities in the African region. Starting with Johannesburg, Benchmark is aiming to reduce environmental damage and secondly to create thousands of jobs.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be created in every major city once MRFs and associated industries are functional. From investing in BMK, to project choice, and to realisation of profits — this is a seamless process achieved using blockchain technologies and facilitated by Benchmark professionals who possess versatile skills in property, finance, engineering and business management.

Well-meaning people and institutions from across the globe can invest in BMK, and be part of the Benchmark Ecosystem. Benchmark is a blockchain technology company managed and owned by real people from various professional backgrounds with offices in Cape Town, China, Malta, the United States, and the Isle of Man.

Find out more about Benchmark: https://benchmarktoken.io/en/