POLOKWANE – “Recycling is not a glamorous job with benefits, it is hard work but it brings in the money needed to survive,” says Michael Lekgatla. He and many others in the city earn a living by collecting and selling much of the items residents throw away.
Michael explains that there is method to the seeming madness of going through other people’s rubbish. He says people who collect from rubbish bags actually work in a set manner and that what may seem as chaos is in fact a well-organised operation.
The regular collectors have set schedules and only collect specific items.
Plastic collectors make their rounds first. According to Michael, plastic sells for just under R1 per kg and are sorted in the following categories:
• PET or polyethylene terephthalate (cold drink bottles and mineral water bottles),
• HDPE or high density polyethylene (milk bottles),
• PVC or polyvinyl chloride (water pipes),
• LDPE or low density polyethylene (clear and colour plastic bags, and shrink wrap),
• PP or polypropylene (ice cream tubs, yogurt tubs and bottle caps) and
• PS or polystyrene.
The second round belongs to the people collecting glass and they usually have a trolley. They are subdivided into what is known as scavengers and organised collectors. Organised collectors have agreements with some of the drinking places in the city to collect the bottles they throw out, whereas the scavengers simply collect from rubbish bags. Glass – bottles can be sold for between five to 10 cents per bottle.
The next group consists of tin and metal collectors who search for cans and items made of aluminium, brass and bronze, cast iron, copper and steel. Tin sells for just under R1 per kg and metal for R3 per kg with R80 per kg being the highest payout.
At the very top of the rubbish collection ‘society’ are the people who collect paper and boxesand are seen to be the “upper class” as they rent a trolley from anti-waste businesses in the city. Paper is sold between R1 and R3 per kg.
They collect cardboard boxes, common and industrial mixed waste, newspaper, craft paper, photostat paper along with milk and juice cartons.
