REPORT: The daily grind of making a living off recycling
FOURWAYS – It’s an industry that creates jobs for thousands of people on a daily basis, and with South Africa’s unemployment rate at its worst – more and more people have joined the business of recycling.
The benefits… quick cash, but not without the hard work.
This is evident when two women are seen struggling to pull their fully loaded trolley up a steep hill in Fourways.
Stuffed with cardboard, plastic bottles, stacks of newspapers and magazines, the women have put together two heaps of recyclable bags on top of each other and are wondering how to transport them back to their nearest recycling centre, almost 5kms from their current location.
Both women, who wished to remain anonymous, explained that their day started at about 7am and ended at about 5pm.
“Obviously this is not what I would love to do, but at the end of the day I have children to feed and waiting on the government for a job is not an option,” one of the women said.
In the end, the women opt for pulling one bag at a time, for safety reasons.
Rodwin Houston, manager of Kya Sands Recycling said more than 100 people came into his centre on a daily basis. “Roughly 80 percent of people who come in here are street hawkers while 20 percent are a mixture of residents and small businesses.
“Some street hawkers travel from as far as Lonehill and Douglasdale. It’s truly amazing what these guys do, and I truly admire them,” he said.
Houston explained that recyclers could earn anything from 20c to R2 per kilogram of recyclable material. “Each material is graded differently, and differs, prices also fluctuate depending on the demand.”
Brian Sibande, who has been recycling for three years, said he could make anything from R100 to R300 a day – this is more than what he used to make at his previous job at a restaurant.
Sibande walks the streets of Fourways, Douglasdale and North Riding looking through people’s trash for any recyclable items, then takes it to his nearest buy-back centre along Witkoppen Road where he sorts it and trades it in for cash.
Houston said anyone with recyclable material was welcome to bring their recyclables to the buy-back centre. The material should be clean and sorted into different grades to ensure the best possible price per kilogram is received.
Details: www.remade.co.za; 083 707 8800.
Do you recycle? Tell us how often and how much you make through recycling by posting on the Fourways Review Facebook page
