Councillor’s Corner is back for a fresh year of questions for our ward councillors to answer.
As your local newspaper, the Randburg Sun provides this platform for residents to learn about, understand and follow local government.
Councillor’s Corner is a platform to voice your concerns or questions for ward councillors to respond to. Different, willing, ward councillors will respond to a question each week.
Email your burning question to aimeed@caxton.co.za.
This week’s question is:
If I miss Pikitup on normal days they come by, or if I want to get rid of extra trash or garden refuse, or even recycling, where can I go?
Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck answers:
Forgetting to put out your bin
If you forget to put out your bin, then you should take it in and put it out the following pickup day as it is very difficult to for Pikitup to return on other days.
If Pikitup missed your bin for whatever reason, then you should contact your residents’ association or ward councillor as soon as possible. Send them your name, cellphone number, address and the problem. It is sometimes possible to arrange a quick collection to rectify the problem.
Try to determine if it is just you or is it a bigger area. Pikitup has an inherited problem with old trucks that keep breaking down. About half the 140-strong fleet are off the road at any one time.
There is a budget for about 30 trucks this year and more will be leased, so this should start resolving itself in the near future. This is also why the collecting team often leaves a mess in the street from spilled trash – they have to work at a fast pace with the few trucks they have.
If there has been a breakdown, then the relevant Pikitup depot usually alerts the councillors who, in turn, usually alert the residents via social media.
Recycling
You should also be recycling – even if its just newspapers, cardboard and bottles. This will reduce your trash load by about one third. If you add plastic bottles and packaging trays, you will save another third.
A separation at source programme is being debuted in sections of Wards 117, 87 and 90 at the moment. This will be later rolled out throughout the City and it will be compulsory for households and businesses to participate.
This scheme will attempt to find solutions to working with the trolley pushers – both by incorporating those who want to get involved in the scheme as well as buying waste from them. So if you want to continue using them for your plastic products and paper, then put clean plastics in a separate bag for them so they won’t have to go through your trash and mess up your bin.
The same will go for those households that use Ronnie Bags for waste paper. They can still continue to put their bags out on paper collection day. The idea is to not exclude other recyclers, but to work together to reduce the waste that goes to landfills in our city.
Getting rid of extra trash
The Garden Recycling sites run by Pikitup (there is one next to Pirates Sports Club in Victory Road, Greenside) operate seven days a week.
You can take garden refuse and other general waste there as well as a wheelbarrow-sized load of building waste, engine and cooking oil, batteries, glass, paper, old paint, metal, plastics, electrical equipment and old appliances. It is free. Note that they do not take household refuse, though.
