By Tshidiso Masopha
For three years there have been ongoing talks about uniting informal waste pickers with the City of Johannesburg’s waste management program. These talks have since hit a dead-end.
Reclaimers are particularly important to the recycling value chain. They contribute to the economy by collecting recyclable waste which they sell to buy-back centres. However, they go without support from the government.
The African Reclaimers Organization (ARO) is a programme that is taking matters into its own hands.
The ARO has done impressive work in a relatively short amount of time. In just over a year, the organisation has spread its influence to almost one hundred residential areas in Johannesburg. They’ve also managed to generate sufficient income to reimburse the reclaimers they employ – 27 South Africans at the time of writing.
ARO’s reclaimers are entitled to funeral cover and UIF.
Luyanda Hlatswayo has worked as a reclaimer since 2010 and is one of the key members of the ARO. She knows something about being stigmatized as a reclaimer. “People will see you pushing a trolley or looking for recyclable materials in bins and think you are dirty and on the streets because of drugs. They don’t recognise reclaiming as work,” says Hlatswayo.
Reclaiming can provide a full-time income for those who are committed. For instance, Manta Khoali managed to put her son through school by reclaiming recyclables. These days, the single mother supports his agricultural studies at a college in Lesotho. Khoali is now a chairperson of the ARO and currently earns more than the average domestic worker.
“The work is not easy though. We have to wake up as early as 3 am to start our day. As a woman, I always have to make sure I am working with male reclaimers because it’s not safe for me to be walking around in the dark alone,” Khoali says.
Johannesburg’s waste management service, Pikitup, says that due to the proverbial ‘budget constraint’ there is no timeline on when reclaimers would be better accommodated. So integration with the Government isn’t around the corner for reclaimers.
What’s more, without reclaimers there would be no recycling economy and our landfills would have shut down decades ago.
Hopefully, we’ll see far fewer pickers gliding dangerously along the side of our roads with bags filled with recyclable gold. Underpaid and without any government support. On the bright side, they’re making strides in the right direction. One recyclable at a time.
