The level of consumption of food, drinks and any other perishable items during the current lockdown will increase per house and the amount of waste from residences may also extremely increase, while the waste from industries and firms will decrease.
This will be primarily because residents who are traditionally at work during the day will now be at home.
The metro is introducing waste separation at source in various areas to minimise waste that ultimately reaches the landfill sites.
However, informal waste pickers recover more recyclable waste than is recovered at any other area of the chain of waste collection.
The national lockdown will, therefore, minimise the informal sorting and recovery of waste as the informal waste pickers’ movements are restricted and waste recycling firms are closed.
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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:
• Separate the recyclable waste from the non-recyclable waste.
• Place the non-recyclable waste in the 240-litre wheelie bin provided.
• Clean your recyclable waste and place it in a separate bag.
• Keep the recyclable waste for the duration of the lockdown so that it is ready to be collected after the lockdown.
A waste picker, or small or medium recycling enterprises will appreciate the waste as they derive income from it.
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Contact the newsroom by emailing: Melissa Hart (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, Leigh Hodgson (News Editor) leighh@caxton.co.za or Busi Vilakazi (Journalist) busiv@caxton.co.za.
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