To "spot" and "point": managing waste pickers' access to landfill waste in the North-West Province

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ABSTRACT

Informal recycling has the potential to contribute to the generation and redistribution of income and hence poverty reduction. However, municipal waste management systems in South Africa do not appear to be ready to formally accommodate informal waste pickers; this has made their activities and waste-picking income vulnerable to the nega-tive effects of policies and strategies. This paper described successful ap-proaches followed on two landfill sites in the North-West Province of South Africa to facilitate the successful integration of informal waste pickers: the key elements in the success of the approach is controlled ac-cess to the landfill site, proper management of waste picking activities on the landfill site as well as cooperation, proper collection and support from local Buy Back Centres. Involving waste pickers themselves in policy planning is essential for long term success in informal recycling. INTRODUCTION

Gathering and retailing recyclable waste has become an informal source of income for thousands of people in South Africa. Waste picking involves no capital or start-up costs, no schooling or ex-pertise and the waste picker has an assured buyer for the recyclable waste. The only real prerequisite for a waste picker is the physical ability to pick waste and to have access to waste and buy-back centres (BBCs) (Viljoen, Schenck & Blaauw, 2012:21). The issue of the management of waste pickers’ access to municipal landfill sites has been problematic. On the one end, no access is granted to waste pickers; on the other end, laisse faire approaches have led to the existence of mafia groups (Samson, 2010a).

The research question posed is how waste pickers’ access to landfill waste can be managed without resorting to the extremes described above. We describe successful approaches followed on two landfill sites in the North-West province of South Africa. These approaches may serve as policy options for other municipal-ities facing similar challenges. We used a qualitative methodology, consisting of unstructured interviews with landfill site supervisors and/or other officials of the Potchefstroom and Vryburg landfill sites in February 2015. We begin by examining the literature on good and poor waste management practices and their impact on

poor segments of the society. We then report, and discuss our find-ings from a case of two land-fill locations in North-West Province of South Africa and draw lessons from the good practices in these locations for other cities.

The impact of waste management strategies on the poor seg-ments of society in Africa must be reviewed against the back-ground of Africa’s recent political-economic history. Bjerkli (2013: 3) argues convincingly that neoliberal policies and structural ad-justment programmes regulated the involvement of private role players in the provision of urban services such as Solid Waste Management (SWM) in African cities. A key theme that came to the fore was the increase in informal private sector involvement in SWM in urban Africa (Bjerkli, 2013). In fact, official waste management systems in many cities cannot survive without the myriad of waste pickers and scrap collectors: they often form the basis of waste collection services at no cost to local authorities, central government and residents (Gerdes & Gunsilius, 2010).

The literature seems to agree that waste is an essential re-source which can provide significant socio-economic benefits. In many cities of the developing world, municipal solid waste are often viewed as natural resources which provide a livelihood to the poor and disadvantaged segments of the urban population (Nzeadibe & Mbah, 2015). New opportunities for some were created, but for many in Africa, this went hand in hand with in-creased vulnerability (Bjerkli, 2013). Most informal waste pickers earn very low and uncertain levels of income (Schenck & Blaauw, 2011). Their socioeconomic and working conditions remain ap-palling as well, with many facing chronic poverty despite their attempts to generate a livelihood in the informal economy (Maso-cha, 2006: 839).

Waste has value – both a social and an economic value. Reduc-ing, recovering or minimising waste provides opportunities for so-cio-economic development; new jobs and businesses; maximising resource recovery for downstream manufacturing growth; reduc-tion in the reliance on declining natural resources...” (SANEWS, 2015). In South Africa, the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, recently estimated the value of the waste sector at

To “Spot” And “Point”: Managing Waste Pickers’

Access To Landfill Waste In The North-West Province

Prof. P F Blaauw

North-West University

Dr. J M M Viljoen

University of Johannesburg

Prof. C J Schenck & Prof. E C Swart

University of the Western Cape

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about 50 billion South African rand a year. Yet, municipal waste management systems in South Africa do not appear to be ready to formally accommodate waste pickers (Schenck & Blaauw, 2011). They have made policies and designed strategies that have not been carefully thought through and which have therefore made informal waste pickers vulnerable.

The situation is however different for parts of the North-West Province where informal waste-pickers have been accom-modated through friendly policies. This makes the case study of the North-West an intriguing one and allows a comparison of their successful practices to less well planned policies in many other municipalities and cities in South Africa. We discuss these practices in the next section.

WASTE PICKERS’ ACCESS TO POTCHEF-STROOM AND VRYBURG LANDFILL SITES

At the Potchefstroom and Vryburg landfill sites in the North-West Province of South Africa, the focus is to integrate the waste pickers into the waste management system in a controlled manner. The local authorities in this area have no “separations at source” initiatives or policy so that all waste goes to the two landfill sites. This creates ample opportunity for waste pickers to collect recy-clable waste at the sites. The waste pickers at both sites are well integrated in the broader waste management system. Between 35 and 60 waste pickers on the Potchefstroom landfill site and ap-proximately 60 waste pickers on the Vryburg landfill site, make a living collecting recyclable waste. Only men are allowed on the Potchefstroom landfill site for security reasons. In Vryburg, men and women are more equally represented. No children are allowed on any of the sites and strict operation hours are kept at both sites. No-one is allowed to sleep at the landfill site.

Access to the landfill site is strictly managed. Before enter-ing the Potchefstroom landfill site, the waste pickers have to sub-mit a copy of their identity document to the security guard on duty. Having an identity document is also important for them to sell their collected waste to BBCs. The waste pickers are also re-quested to sign an undertaking in which they agree to oblige to the landfill site’s operational rules. In Vryburg, the officials keep a daily register of the waste pickers who enter the landfill site. This is an important way of taking ownership of their integration in the waste management system.

For health reasons, the waste pickers in Vryburg are only al-lowed on the landfill sites if they wear their protective clothing, which includes gloves and boots. Many municipalities or com-panies who are responsible for landfill sites in the Western Cape mentioned safety and security as some of the most important rea-sons for not permitting waste pickers on the landfill sites (Chvatal, 2010). To prevent injuries on the Potchefstroom and Vryburg

landfill sites, the waste pickers are only allowed to collect waste on a certain area of the landfill site each day. One person on each landfill site is in charge of directing the waste pickers to the “safe” areas. In Potchefstroom, this person is referred to as the “spotter” and in Vryburg, they are referred to as “pointers”. The “spotter” / “pointer” is also in charge of directing the trucks to that specific day’s tipping areas. Both landfill sites are also properly fenced, which helps with the injury risk, safety management and access control. This is an important element of a successful strategy to incorporate waste pickers in the waste management strategy.

Several factors are important for the successful management of the waste picking activities in Potchefstroom and Vryburg. The first important factor is the number of officials present on the landfill sites. Beside the supervisor and spotter, there are three security guards on the Potchefstroom site which make supervision easier. On the Vryburg landfill site, there are one site supervisor, the “pointer”, three additional staff from the Department of En-vironmental Affairs as well as an administrative officer, at the gate, who records the movements of vehicles to and from the landfill site.

The second factor is the active involvement of the BBCs on the landfill sites whose cooperation, collection activities and sup-port form part of the successful waste management on the sites. At both sites, the BBCs provide the waste pickers with large bags in which they can store their sorted waste. The BBCs’ collection activities involve the collection of the waste pickers’ sorted waste at the landfill site. Waste pickers do not need to incur additional costs and effort to take the waste to the BBC premises. The BBCs weigh the individual waste pickers’ waste at their premises. The es-timated income of the waste pickers in Potchefstroom is between R120 and R180 for a day’s recyclable waste.

In Vryburg, four different BBCs take waste pickers to the landfill site in the mornings. These waste pickers are not employed by the BBCs but have an informal agreement with a specific BBC according to which the waste pickers undertake to supply them with the recyclable waste collected. Each BBC provides protec-tive clothing to the waste pickers with whom they have the infor-mal agreement. To make identification easier, each BBC must be clothed in a different colour.

The approaches to waste management adopted on the Potch-efstroom and Vryburg landfill sites are radically different from that followed by many other towns and cities in South Africa. An example is in Kwazulu-Natal where the Msunduzi municipal-ity has tried, unsuccessfully, to completely bar waste pickers from the New England Road Landfill. Msunduzi started a process in 2010 to formalise recycling. It has granted a tender to a company to develop a composting and materials recovery facility at the New England Road landfill (Samson, 2010b). The municipality

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requested at the time that some of the existing waste pickers be hired by the company in question. Apart from this, the informal waste pickers have been completely side-lined. This has had dev-astating effects on their income and has pushed them further into poverty (Samson, 2010b).

The Metsimaholo municipality in the Free State is yet an-other case in point. Metsimaholo is regarded, by some, as the van-guard of efforts to formalise recycling initiatives (Samson, 2010b). The local council has since inception chosen to incorporate re-cycling indirectly through a public-private partnership. It took a number of years however for the Council to succeed in enclosing the landfill and fully transferring property rights to the garbage to the contract holder (Samson, 2010b). The case studies in the North-West are examples of how to achieve this objective effec-tively.

CONCLUSION

The key elements in the success of providing waste pickers access to landfill waste is controlled access to the landfill site, the proper management of waste picking activities on landfill sites as well as cooperation, proper collection and support from the local BBCs. Proper landfill management do not only provide income oppor-tunities to the waste pickers but also reduce the risk of injury and increase the volume of recyclable waste that can be diverted back into the economy.

The two case studies point to important lessons if inclusive resource management is to make the difference to social and en-vironmental justice envisaged by Gutberlet (2008). The literature review suggests that informal recycling can contribute to the gen-eration and redistribution of income and hence poverty reduction. Any policy interventions to facilitate the envisaged benefit will have to address, concurrently, the poverty, human capital, econom-ic, social and labour market barriers that make it difficult for waste pickers to improve their socioeconomic conditions. Interventions aimed at supporting street waste pickers should not deprive them of their livelihood, meagre as it is.

The key to long term success is the involvement of the waste pickers themselves is to map the future for them in the waste management strategy of municipalities. This may or may not be in the form of cooperatives, which seems to be the preferred blan-ket strategy of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In Brazil and many other Latin American countries, recycling coop-eratives and associations are widespread. They often are more ef-fective than the official waste management programs (Gutberlet, 2008). In South Africa, cooperatives can only be successful if they receive sufficient start-up capital and the waste pickers themselves want this model. Mentoring and the development of management skills is a further prerequisite for success in the South African

scenario, given low levels of human capital.

Creating employment can be achieved if the above is com-bined with better coordination between different spheres of gov-ernment, NGOs and the waste pickers themselves. Brazil and other developing countries such as India have shown that this is possible (Gutberlet, 2008; Samson 2010b). Looking at the Na-tional Development Plan of South Africa raises serious questions. The word informal basically does not feature. Yet, recycling is mentioned as an area for contributing to economic growth and employment creation. Where the waste pickers fit into this ideal is not clear at the moment. Clarity and coordination is therefore vital if the intended waste recycling benefits are to be realised. Thousands of waste pickers, their families and their communities depend on this. Their voice needs to be heard.

REFERENCES

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