Illegal recycling plants exposed in Weltevreden Park

We’ve all become accustomed to the hordes of recycling trolley pushers that descend on local neighbourhoods on dustbin day. While for most of us, this seems fairly innocent and harmless, there are bigger issues surrounding the trolley pushers to consider.

According to Beagle Watch’s crime specialist Leon van Zyl, the recyclers, while for the most part simply people who are trying under difficult circumstances to make a living, do contribute to crime in local neighbourhoods, whether intentional or not.

“There are multiple aspects to consider when it comes to informal recyclers,” says Van Zyl. “Being completely informal, unmanaged, and unregulated, it is easy for criminals to blend in among honest recyclers, either to commit crime or to act as spotters for potential targets.

“Also, you have to realise that these recyclers do not, as most people think, sell their collected products to the recycling plants. Instead, they collect their wares until they have huge piles of plastic, tin cans, paper, etc, and once they have enough to be financially significant for them, they sell it to a middleman, who then sells it on to the recycling plants.”.

According to Van Zyl, it is suspected that these middlemen are part of a syndicate formed to profit from the recyclers, and wield massive power of these vulnerable people. The middlemen show up to certain points in bakkies and even trucks and pay trolley pushers for bags of recyclable material – paying a mere fraction of what it is worth.

One of the main problems regarding this massive informal industry, and one that very few people know about, is where trolley pushers sort and store their collected materials.

“It is right under our noses, in our neighbourhoods,” says Van Zyl. “Everywhere across the West Rand, you will find well-hidden, and surprisingly large sorting and storage facilities. Not in hired buildings, but in hidden spots in your local green belts.”

Van Zyl took the Roodepoort Northsider to see some of these facilities for ourselves. Hidden in plain sight right next to the N1 North and in the middle of a residential area, is a sorting and storage area of astonishing proportions. Hundreds upon hundreds of large recycling bags are hidden among the bushes, all along a beautiful stream that runs alongside the N1.

The further you walk down the muddy path, the more you come upon huge bags filled to the brim, some with plastic bottles, others with tin cans, glass bottles, or assorted paper. Every kind of discarded item imaginable could be found, and the further you walk along the path, the more it becomes apparent that this is no small operation – it is big business.

Worst of all, as they approached a clump of trees and overgrown shrubbery, they realised that there, hidden in plain sight, is a whole informal village where vagrant recyclers live and work right on the doorsteps of Weltevreden Park residents, who for the most part, are completely oblivious.

According to Van Zyl, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“There are many sites just like this one dotted throughout almost every neighbourhood in the West Rand. Some are smaller, but others are much larger. The trolley pushers are careful to hide their activities just out of sight of residents and passing traffic, but they are not hard to find.”

Cobus Botes, Beagle Watch’s area manager also warns that informal recyclers are not as innocent as people think.

“The fact is that wherever these informal recyclers are active, crime rates increase with on average between 30% and 40%. This is for the most part petty crime but there are also some instances of street robberies and even more serious crimes like housebreaking and home invasions.”

Beagle Watch and many other local institutions are doing a lot of work to try and curb these illegal activities, but without any real power to enforce laws and bylaws, there is realistically only so much they can do.

“We do everything we legally can to disrupt these illegal activities as much as possible, but to remove these vagrants and their illegal operations permanently will take the cooperation of numerous institutions and departments including the police, JMPD, City Parks, Department of Home Affairs, and more.

“Our local police stations have been very proactive in tackling this problem, and have numerous local businesses and residents organisations also taking part and contributing. Unfortunately, not all departments and role players are keen to come on board, resulting in this issue being one that will likely not be solved in the foreseeable future.”