Waste picking may be a dirty business to some, but for other Grahamstonians collecting your refuse contributes more than 60% of their household income.
Waste picking may be a dirty business to some, but for other Grahamstonians collecting your refuse contributes more than 60% of their household income.
A group of Rhodes University’s 3rd year Environmental Science students studied the way the city’s urban poor collect waste and offer suggestions for improving their plight.
They found that your trash reduced poverty and contributed about 61% of the total annual household income of those people who scrounge around in your garbage bags.
Waste pickers collect materials such as plastic, glass, metal, paper, rubber and cardboard from the streets and at the dump site.
They not only earn an income, but they contribute to Makana Municipality’s waste management programme. However, achieving the full potential of earning a livelihood is constrained by a range of challenges.
For example, waste picking is currently not seriously recognised as a waste management strategy by the Makana Municipality, hence it is poorly supported. Other challenges include exploitation by merchants who give them unfair market prices, health risks, conflicts among waste pickers themselves and negative views from the community, which sometimes considers them ‘dirty’ or ‘criminal’.
Waste picking needs to be formally acknowledged and supported as a viable income generating activity. Support could reduce the challenges these people face, empower them and increase their income potential.
One possibility is for the Municipality to encourage and support waste pickers to form alliances. Lessons from other parts of the world show that these alliances can give waste pickers a higher bargaining power when dealing with merchants.
Further, the general public needs to be educated about the economic and environmental benefits of informal waste collection.
Through education, negative perceptions could be reduced and the community may be more inclined to be active participants in sorting their own waste at home.
This could contribute to improving the waste pickers’ working conditions and potential income and help Makana Municipality in minimising waste management costs.
The municipality needs to consider providing protective gear, transport, health care services and compensation for services rendered for the removal of waste.
