STREET SWEEPER HIRE JOHANNESBURG

Waste Pickers – Some Surprising Numbers

Johannesburg, the commercial hub of South Africa, shares a problem with garbage management with all other cities in the world. Over 290 000 tonnes of rubbish were illegally dumped in neighbourhoods all over the city in 2018–19. Given that the four permitted landfills will be full in less than three years, illegal dumping is likely to rise.

Over the years, numerous attempts have been undertaken to try and better control the issues.

The role of trash reclaimers (waste pickers), the unofficial players who make a living by rescuing and selling recyclables, has been a divisive and politically sensitive topic in all of these endeavours.

Waste Pickers in Johannesburg play a critical role in trash management and recycling, just like their counterparts across the nation. Reclaimers are responsible for collecting between 80% and 90% of all spent packaging and paper that is recycled, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Municipalities also save up to R748 million a year in landfill space thanks to them. Without them, Johannesburg’s landfills would have long since been closed, and South Africa’s recycling industry would not exist.

Just over ten years ago, Pikitup, a private corporation established by the City to provide municipal waste management services, began to actively promote recycling. Pikitup creates charity-style programmes for the genuine recycling professionals, reclaimers, instead of working with them in a collaborative capacity, and assigns the official recycling task to unemployed individuals with no prior knowledge in the field and private businesses.

Pikitup launched a separation at source pilot initiative in the middle of 2018 that pays two private companies to collect recyclables that locals in select suburbs separate from rubbish.

In order to extend the pilot programme, the city is now asking “affluent” residents to pay an additional R50 monthly recycling charge.

However, data from my three-year research project demonstrates that Pikitup’s pilot programme has not successfully collected sizable amounts of recyclables. Furthermore, it has not been at all economical. Additionally, it has gravely detrimental effects on claimants.

Unexpected outcomes

In Johannesburg, there are roughly 8000 waste pickers. There are families with several generations of recyclers and even people who have been collecting recyclables for more than 30 years.

My research study, which I collaborated on with 13 post-graduate students, involved interviewing and surveying reclaimers, residents, and officials to determine how Pikitup’s recycling programmes had an impact on them between 2016 and 2019.

We discovered that the pilot of Pikitup had a number of unfavourable effects.

Reclaimers struggled to get recyclables when the hired firms began collecting the same materials they relied on, which had a negative impact on their income. Reclaimers were accused of “taking” Pikitup’s bags by homeowners and security, which increased harassment.

Additionally, the pilot made it more difficult for reclaimers in additional ways. To get to the materials before the private recycling trucks arrived, they had to start camped out in suburban parks because if they didn’t, there would be nothing to collect and their kids would go hungry.