The level of consumption of either food or drinks, as well as the amount of waste at residences may increase during the lockdown.
The waste from industries and firms will decrease; this is primarily because residents who are traditionally at work will now be at home.
The City of Ekurhuleni is introducing waste separation at source in various areas to minimise waste that ultimately reaches the landfill sites.
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“However, informal waste pickers recover more recyclable waste than is recovered at any other area of the chain of waste collection,” said Themba Gadebe, the metro’s spokesperson.
“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.”
Gadebe added that 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 wheelie bin
• Clean your recyclable waste and place it in a separate bag
• Keep the recyclable waste for the duration of the lockdown and make it 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,” said Gadebe.
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