Civil Engineering August 2021 | Vol 29 No 7

22 August 2021 Civil Engineering E arlier this year, the SAICE Environmental Division hosted a lecture titled Waste reclaimers and recycling in South Africa . The event featured Dr Melanie Samson from the University of the Witwatersrand and Luyanda Hlatshwayo of the African Reclaimers Organisation who explained how reclaimers created South Africa’s system to collect recyclables; the contri- butions that they make to the economy, environment and society; and the negative effects for everyone when they are ex- cluded from official separation at source programmes. This article provides an overview of the information presented at the lecture. WHO ARE THE WASTE RECLAIMERS? South Africa’s waste reclaimers, or waste pickers, are independent people (total population estimates vary between a minimum of 60 000 and a maximum of 215 000 reclaimers) who are currently without jobs and make an honest living collecting and selling recyclables so that they can feed, clothe, and school their families. They typically travel many kilo- metres a day collecting waste, expending enormous energy in the process – their fully laden carts can weigh 200 kg or more. It takes twenty-three 2 ℓ PET bottles to make up 1 kg which can be sold for around R3/kg. This is also intellectual work as reclaimers need to quickly iden- tify those materials which are lucrative to sell and work quickly in such a way that they do not upset residents and get evicted. Their work is also dangerous and time consuming; many reclaimers get hit by cars. Pulling a trolley along a suburban road is slow and time consuming and the buy-back centres sometimes make them stand in long queues for hours. Do not delude yourselves into thinking that these people have an easy time earning money. Many of these people come from SADC countries such as Lesotho. Dr Samson highlighted that many of them came to South Africa as the backbone of the mining industry, but with the closing of so many mines they now find themselves unemployed. ARO is an organisation which is collaborating with government and reclaimers in order to get the already functioning informal waste reclaiming sector aligned. They currently get no financial support from government. WHAT VALUE DO RECLAIMERS ADD? Informal waste reclaimers extract discarded items that would normally end up in landfills or polluting the environment and sell these to buy-back centres for recycling. Waste reclaimers Turning waste into wages: the story of SA’s waste reclaimers For decades, reclaimers have been stigmatised, harassed, and exploited by residents, industry and government. This has begun to change in recent years as residents have begun to value and proactively support reclaimers and national stakeholders have agreed to a national guideline on waste picker integration. Rod Rankine Pr Eng Committee member SAICE Environmental Division rod.rankine@telkomsa.net Reclaimers are responsible for 80% to 90% of all material recycled in South Africa