The City of Joburg on Thursday announced that its Environment and Infrastructure Services Department (EISD), in conjunction with waste management company Pikitup, has started to register waste pickers within Johannesburg.
“Region D was the first of all the city’s regions to start [with] the registration, with 1 200 waste pickers already registered.
“Waste pickers are one of the key stakeholders in increasing the yield of recyclable materials diverted from Pikitup’s landfill sites, which is the ultimate objective of the City of Joburg’s waste minimisation efforts,” the city stated.
Through this registration, waste pickers can be considered for training opportunities and benefit from waste minimisation value chain projects.
The EISD also has a forum in place where waste pickers are registered. “We will consolidate these lists to better engage with waste pickers in the future. We will engage around how we can assist with protective clothing, tools of trade and inoculations through corporate sponsorship,” City of Joburg confirmed.
The Department of Environmental Affairs has estimated that there are around 62 100 waste pickers in the country and about 25 400 of them operate at kerbside as trolley pushers, and about 36 680 operate at landfill sites.