The Jbay Recycling Project

The JBay Recycling Project was started after a presentation by Marilyn van der Velde, from Hermanus (www.swop-shop.za.net) at the Jeffreys Bay Rotary club. Three ladies who attended the presentation were so taken with the idea that they convened a meeting in October 2010 to investigate the possibility to start a similar project in Jeffreys Bay.

In February 2011 the first Recycling day was held with the help of Rotary, and now in 2014 we are officially a Non-Profit Organization going from strength to strength. A step by step guide on how the project works.

The project is run by volunteers from the community.

Volunteers give up their time and energy to assist the project in various ways, from buying stock, setting up shop, making clothes and blankets, admin and media liaison work and assisting Mondays, Recycling days.
No volunteers receive a salary from the Recycling Project
ALL income generated from the sale of the recycables as well as all donations are used to stock the shop.
The JBay Recycling Project has been going for almost three years with 136 trading days.
An average of 320 children collect an average of 2.8 tonnes of recycables from the streets of Jeffreys Bay every week.
We always welcome new volunteers. Please contact us and see in which way you can help.

Latest News :

With the Easter Holidays come and gone, the first quarter of the year has been busy as far as trading at the JBay Recycling project goes. So far this year the children have brought in 20 tonnes of recyclables to trade for goods in the “swop shop”! This brings up our grand total to 570… tonnes of which 240 tonnes have been plastic.

In 2017, we implemented a reward of fruit (donated by Food Lover’s Market) to those children who bring their own shopping bags. We are glad to report that lots of our customers as young as 4 or 5 years have now cultivated that habit (so no excuses for us adults!). Fresh produce from the Jeffreys Bay Comprehensive School garden, sponsored by Vlakteplaas, continues to be extremely popular. Pauline is now kindly making up R5/ 1 Mula bunches of spinach, since the R10 bunches were in many cases bigger than the kids! If you live in Jeffreys Bay, we encourage you to take advantage of this resource – open weekday mornings opposite 55 Koraal Street.

Loads of kids use 2 of their Mula to buy a bag of dog food, supplied at below cost by J.Bay Animal Rescue Sanctuary’s Vivienne. 500 knitted squares, 20 whole blankets plus lots of beanies and hand warmers are flying in from all over the world, lovingly made by the group of knitters and crocheters who donate their time to keep our children warm in the upcoming colder weather. The hand warmers are particularly sought after.

As always we need to thank our regular volunteers without whom the project would not be able to operate, and welcome all new volunteers with open arms. The Jeffreys Bay Primary School sends a group of children called the Caring Kids Club every Monday to volunteer, the interaction between the project children and the Caring kids Club is very special.
We also had a group from Pharos School visit us – this group of 18 learners spent 2 hours helping us get the swop shop ready for the afternoon by repacking sugar, weetbix, hair bands and marbles. They have promised to return soon!
We have regular visitors from Ubuntu Backpackers as well as Island Vibe Backpackers. These mostly overseas visitors are invaluable as they become ambassadors for the Project during their travels.

With winter coming up, we are always looking for donations of warm children’s clothing. Please contact Tanja on 084 684 6771 to arrange where you can drop off.

Donations : 

A regular gift such as a monthly stop order (EFT) allows us to plan for the future.
Donations can be made directly into our bank account (please email or fax us your deposit slip).
Our Bank details are:

JBay Recycling Project,
FNB, Jeffreys Bay, Branch code: 210 515,
Account number: 62 475 396 422 .
Please mark the deposit with your name and contact details.

We always welcome donations of any kind.

You can make a donation using PayPal.

How to contact us

Tanja (project coordinator):
084 684 6771
wvjbay@mweb.co.za
jbayrecyclingproject@gmail.com

PO Box 153, Jeffreys Bay 6330