Residents are urged to meet the metro and waste pickers half way on separating recyclable and non-recyclable waste – as this may help shuffle off the burden on the landfill sites, and reduce illegal waste dumping.
The City of Ekurhuleni said it is also refining its waste collection processes by introducing separation of waste at the source in various areas to minimise waste that ultimately reaches the landfill sites.
The metro, however, pointed out that informal waste pickers also contribute significantly to separation of waste – as they recover more recyclable waste than it is recovered at the landfill sites or any other area of the chain of waste collection.
In order to reduce the amount of waste to be collected, thus sparing the landfill sites of more waste to handle and illegal waste dumping, households are advised to do the following:
• Separate the recyclable waste from the non-recyclable waste.
• Place the non-recyclable waste in the 240L bin provided by the City.
• Clean recyclable waste and place it in a separate bag to hand it over to recyclable waste pickers.
“A recyclable waste picker or small and medium recycling enterprises will appreciate the waste as they derive income from it,” said the metro in a statement.
The municipality also noted that the level of consumption either of food, drinks or any other perishable during the lockdown has increased per household and the amount of waste from residences may also extremely increase, while the waste from the industries and firms decrease.
“This is as many industries and firms have adopted a new way of working, resulting in some employees working from home to avoid overcrowding in the workplace,” said the metro.
Also Read: Waste pickers make a living
