Waste picking: Why it’s here to stay
Waste pickers are self-employed, help to save the environment and reduce municipalities’ recycling costs
bout 62 000 people in South Africa collect recyclables on an informal basis. Waste pickers work in an unregulated environment where conditions are often dangerous and the financial rewards meagre. The most a waste picker can expect is to eke out a marginal livelihood.
Yet waste pickers save municipalities up to R700-million a year in waste collection and disposal expenses.
The 2020 National Waste Management Strategy for South Africa (NWMS) calls for waste pickers to be formally integrated into the recycling sector value chain. Ideally, the government wants waste picking to happen at source within the waste management system and recycling economy — in other words, from waste left outside for collection, whether from bins or black bags.
Government also wants markets for separated recyclables to enjoy widespread support. This would require greater collaboration between waste pickers, the private sector and local authorities.
Metros are expected to initiate integration programmes for waste pickers by the end of this year, and the packaging industry needs to come to the party by actively implementing schemes to get pickers integrated into the economy. This is a stipulation of the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations gazetted last year, but to what extent this is happening remains to be seen.
Producers of consumables are under strict instruction to comply, failing which they could face serious consequences, including fines, imprisonment and loss of registration with the department. Organisations responsible for producing consumables in the various sectors have to co-operate with municipalities to collect more recyclables from municipal waste within three years of implementing their “producer responsibility schemes”.
The government’s message could not be clearer: waste pickers are here to stay, and the various stakeholders need to figure out ways to work with them so that everyone benefits.
It is clear that formal integration will not happen overnight.