Local business employees Tracy Butler and Allan van Jaarsveld at the heap of trash at the Simmer and Jack landfill. They don masks from time to time to avoid breathing in some of the noxious fumes. Picture: Hein Kaiser
Workers have had to wear masks at offices and small industrial businesses near the Simmer and Jack municipal dump in Ekurhuleni for weeks – first as a fire expelled toxic smoke and then because of the smell.
The landfill is flanked by Primrose on one side and an industrial area with factories and offices on the other. It stinks, it’s dangerous and, according to locals, out of control. Ekurhuleni generates about 1.3 million tons of waste annually – an average of 108 000 tons per month, 25 000 tons per week or 800 tons per day.
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There are four sites where collected trash is dumped into landfill mountains. The Simmer and Jack site lies just off Main Reef Road in Germiston, adjacent to the N3 freeway. “The stench is unbearable at times,” said local business owner Marion Eltringham.
“There has never been a problem with the dump until new contractors were awarded management of the site a couple of years ago. Now, there are regular fires, the fence has been nonexistent and when the fire started – it’s still smouldering – we had to evacuate our premises because of the toxins,” she said. When
The Citizen visited the site, there was no fence for the most part. Concrete palisades were torn down. Access to the site was simple and a small army of waste pickers were scavenging on the smouldering heap.
Two weeks ago, a fire raged across the site, spewing toxic black smoke into the air. Albany Bakery, which lies close to the area, had to stop production of snacks for two days. But, owner Tiger Brands said, bread production was not impacted.
“The bakery is a Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000)-accredited site and follows stringent food safety procedures, which includes monitoring air quality inside the facility to ensure that our consumers can trust Albany for a fresh, quality loaf of bread,” the company said.
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“The production of Tinkies was halted for 48 hours as the cooling process of this product uses external ambient air.” Initially, the City of Ekurhuleni said the fire was put out. But, in response to The Citizen this week, it said the site was still smouldering underground and noted that emergency services remain on hand to ensure the safety of neighbours.
During The Citizen’s visit, a lone grader was covering smouldering areas with sand. There were no fire engines visible. According to Eltringham, waste is not sufficiently covered with soil once dumped, adding to a sustained risk of a blaze. In addition, the wind has transplanted huge amounts of trash beyond the borders of the landfill, into the streets and what used to be a small green belt. The city said that it has been gradually addressing the problem.
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DA ward councillor Wendy Morgan said that the amount of refuse that is brought into the Simmer and Jack landfill remains a challenge for the contractor to perform the required compacting and covering of refuse daily. “The biggest challenge is that the landfill site has been receiving a substantial amount of waste volumes,” said Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
“It’s much more than the equipment on site can handle. Additional equipment has been deployed in the past to fast-track the covering up, but the most effective action will be to reduce the traffic entering the site. “The city is currently working on a plan to reduce the amount of waste entering the site to more manageable levels,” he added.
The dump is a public facility and thus the onus is on everyone to protect it, according to Dlamini. He added that the fence is repaired on an ingoing basis. “The challenge is that the fence is vandalised by illegal miners.
They have, in the past, refused for certain portions to be repaired and go as far as threatening contractors who were tasked with repairing of the fence as that is how they gain entry to the site,” he said
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