War on Waste: Meet the unsung recycling soldiers of Tzaneen
GTM are working on a number of ways to reduce the amount of refuse that ends up being compacted, with the removal of recyclables being just one of them.
Once you have put your rubbish out for collection, do you ever wonder what happens to it?
Letaba Herald took a tour of the landfill site with Eugene Schutte, GTM Regional Waste Manager, to learn more about the management practices that GTM has adopted.
Household waste that has not been separated at source, all ends up at our landfill, just outside of town.
Here, the refuse is dumped into a small area of the landfill known as a ‘cell’.
The waste is separated by hand by a team of recyclers.
The team, consisting of 45 registered individuals, work independently to sort through recyclable materials.
The recyclers are motivated by the price of the items that they collect. For example, glass bottles are worth R0.20 per Kg, whilst aluminium cans are worth R4.00 per Kg.
At the end of the working day, each worker’s haul is weighed and recorded before being sorted into demarcated cages for compacting and collection.
Read:Â PHALABORWA: Landfill audit drops to a stinky 32%
Some of the recyclers methodically work through the pile of rubbish in search of the highest paying items whilst others collect as much as possible, working purely on weight.
Protonka Recycling run a monthly incentive scheme in order to reward the workers.
The recycler with the heaviest haul of the month can walk away with some incredible prizes. One month, the prize was a Smart TV and another, a brand new fridge.
With worthy prizes in sight, some recyclers push for the monthly prize as opposed to the most expensive items.
As the recyclers work through the recyclable materials, heavy machinery is brought into compact the waste.
The waste is compacted in a ratio of 6:1, so 6 cubic metres of rubbish is compacted to 1 cubic metre, reducing air space at the landfill.
GTM are working on a number of ways to reduce the amount of refuse that ends up being compacted, with the removal of recyclables being just one of them. Together with these other practices, GTM are expanding the lifespan of the landfill site.
Read:Â South Africa produces shocking amount of waste
The original landfill permit granted in 1996 estimated a lifespan of 12 years for the site.
Due to the efficient management practices implemented at the landfill site, the lifespan of the site has been extended greatly.
At this stage, it looks like the site has another 18-19 years to go!
