PIKITUP CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL DUMPING
PIKITUP Managing Director Amanda Nair has described illegal dumping as one of the most prevalent problems South Africa faces in terms of waste management, decrying that the company spends over R600 million annually conducting street cleaning/litter picking and clearing indiscriminate dumps across the City of Johannesburg.
This amount, experts say, could be used to either build more than 8 000 houses for the needy, buy 600 new ambulances or police vehicles or pay university fees for 4 300 engineering, maths and science students.
Most of the illegal dumping occurs in the Southern region and comprises mainly of builders’ rubble.
“These are resources which we could be channeling towards other initiatives to further improve service delivery to residents.
“Not only is the practice of illegal dumping a huge drain on available resources, it has a tellingly negative impact on the health of the people and the environment through pollution of air, land and water,” Nair said.
Pikitup reports that illegal dumping of waste amounted to total of 230 000 tonnes in the last financial year (2013/2014). On average, Nair said, Pikitup collects 4 500 tonnes of illegally dumped waste a week.
The city generates approximately 6 000 tonnes of waste on a daily basis. On annual basis this culminates into 1, 56 million tonnes of waste generated. Close to 90 percent of mixed waste ends up disposed at our landfill sites.
These patterns of waste disposal are not sustainable for the life span of all the existing four landfill sites (Marie Louise, Ennerdale, Robinson Deep and Goudkoppies).
It is estimated that, if the residents of Johannesburg do not change the manner in which they handle or dispose of waste in whatever form, there won’t be a space to dispose such waste by the year 2022.
While Pikitup is mandated to maintain the City's cleanliness to acceptable levels, the City's residents, visitors and tourists also have a vital role to play.
Unfortunately, there is a pervasive mindset among Joburg citizens that tolerates littering and illegal dumping.
The negative consequences of this mindset extend far beyond the visible blight of unhealthy illegal dumps across the City.
Nair explained that in 2014 the Board approved the Plan for Curbing Illegal Dumping and Littering.
The plan, she explained, serves as a basis for rolling out preventative as well as corrective measures for dealing with some of the causes of illegal dumping in the City.
Embedded into it is a developmental service delivery approach to ensure active participation from local communities.
“We are employing different methods to fight the scourge of illegal dumping, but the most important aspect of our efforts revolves around the creation of awareness through engagement with our customers and the general community.
“We have put mechanisms in place for the improvement of our waste collection services and provision of the required tools and equipment such as refuse bags, bins and storage receptacles.
“However, all these efforts cannot succeed without cooperation from the public in adopting the correct behaviour towards eradicating illegal dumping,” she said.
The Joburg municipality also has provisions for law enforcement, punitive and deterrent measures to address indiscriminate littering and dumping.
Pikitup is also moving ahead with efforts to develop an App to be used by residents to report incidents of illegal dumping.
“In an ideal world, these would be the last resort. We believe that prevention is better than cure,” she said.
Pikitup is also working closely with the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to bring culprits to book. The JMPD is responsible for enforcing the City’s by-laws by issuing fines to those caught dumping illegally.
Nair added that Pikitup has a Waste Exchange Programme (Food for Waste) which provides food parcels to communities in exchange for the cleaning of illegal dumping spots.
However, she pointed out that these [spots] would only be sustainable if converted into food gardens that can service the community as well as commercial sale of products.
“Pikitup is involved in various activities in partnership with recycling companies which recover recyclable goods from, for example, shopping centres and other collection points.
“Shopping centres have a large amount of plastic wrappers, beverage cans and bottles, therefore the partners collect directly from the centres, diverting those materials from the landfill sites.
“In addition, Pikitup champions the buyback centre concept for Johannesburg, in which waste is sold to recycling partners,” said Nair.
According to the latest Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s ‘Municipal Waste Management – Good Practices’ report, instead of spending available funds on clean-up campaigns, municipalities must take preventative actions such as beautifying the area, providing waste bins at strategic locations and implementing projects that can deter people from illegally dumping, e.g. using open spaces for projects that can be beneficial to residents.
Some of the projects, the choice of which is influenced by specific area conditions and needs, listed in the report include: Creating parks and playgrounds for children; Initiating community gardens including vegetable gardens for social upliftment; and, Establishing car washes to provide employment for the youth in the area
“I truly welcome Pikitup’s efforts in cracking down on illegal dumping in the City, as I understand that a large proportion of the company’s operation expenditure cannot be recovered due to this scourge.
“I must state that, although Pikitup does not have the regulatory powers to issue fines to people caught illegally dumping waste, I am glad that Pikitup in partnership with all stakeholders is attempting, to find ways of minimising the opportunities that give rise to illegal dumping in the City.
“This, the company does by making illegal dumping difficult and less attractive,” said Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment, and Infrastructure Services Department Councillor Matshidiso Mfikoe.
Nair concluded: “The need to reduce illegal dumping waste has become a major focal point in Operations and Pikitup has procured ‘builder’s rubble crusher’ plants, as measure to combat illegal dumping, as rubble constitutes a significant amount of waste dumped illegally in Johannesburg, especially in the Southern region.
“It is therefore expected that in the future the volumes of builder’s waste would reduce.”