New contractor, same old rubbish for Musgrave

RESIDENTS in Musgrave have been left frustrated after their orange recycling bags have not been picked up since March.

The Orange Bags Recycling programme is an initiative by the eThekwini Municipality to collect recyclable material like garden refuse that is not collected by the Durban Solid Waste.

DSW collects domestic refuse while the orange bags are collected by private subcontractors hired by the city.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent countrywide lockdown that commenced in March, the programme was halted.
The city encouraged residents to store their orange bags until the resumption of the programme. On 1 June, the city released a statement saying that the collection of orange bags will resume but some residents still have not had their bags collected.

Bjoern Pretruschka from Musgrave said they had to pay from their own costs for a private collector.
“We have been recycling our waste and keeping it in the garage but then it got to a point where there were too many bags so we hired someone to come clear it out for us,” he said.

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Bjoern, who has been recycling for a long time said they had troubles in the past but this is the longest he has had his orange bags not collected.
“We thought because of the lockdown things might move slowly but it has been more than three months now since all services resumed,” said Bjoern. “We have been trying to call the contractor and arrange a collection but he seems disinterested.”

In response, the city said it has recently hired a new contractor after problems with the previous one.

“A new recycling contractor has recently been appointed to service the Musgrave area and the surroundings. We appreciate receiving feedback from the residents on the performance of the contractor. The City is working around the clock inducting the contractor and resolving the situations arising from uncollected recycling bags,” said Msawakhe Mayisela, eThekwini Municipality Spokesperson.
“The City apologises for the inconvenience caused and further requests residents to include street names where incidents of uncollected recycling bags occurred.”

Linda Botha, a resident of Lower Morningside also has a garage full of orange rubbish.
“There are 12 bags outside and 13 more inside the garage,” said Botha. “It is a bit suspect because the guy who is supposed to be picking it up is not answering his phone or responding to emails.”

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