“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” the old Chinese proverb goes and while having a recycling programme rolled out in your neighbourhood may not seem as the most thrilling destination for some, for Ward 58 councillor Katherine Christie it is a prospect to get excited about.
Hoping to bring the City of Cape Town’s “Think Twice” recycling initiative to areas located between Kromboom Parkway, Wetton Road, Campground Road, Palmyra Road, and the railway line, Christie has already taken the first step to turn this objective into a reality.
To contain the ever-increasing amount of recyclable waste going to the landfill sites, the solid waste management department of the City of Cape Town launched the pilot project in 2007 in a few selected areas. The initiative encourages households to separate their waste into recyclable and non-recyclable components.
Christie says she has seen a similar programme in action in the United Kingdom (UK) where residents put recycling into a green bin and “landfill waste” into a black bin. “One bin a week is collected; so each bin is emptied fortnightly. This is what I’d love to implement in Ward 58. However, I need to cooperate with the system that the City is going with.”
She shares she has been writing to City officials to learn what they are doing and what can be done. A task team to work out how the ward can sync with the programme has also been formed.
“A City Solid Waste manager told me that my idea is not practicable in many areas of Cape Town, such as backyard families, as there isn’t enough space for two bins. However, I don’t believe we have this problem in Ward 58,” says Christie.
In an email sent to Christie earlier this year, Alison Davison, Head: Waste Minimisation, Planning Branch: solid waste management department, wrote that the City currently supplies approximately 190 000 households with a Think Twice door-to-door recycling service.
In the email, Davison explained that this type of service, due to the nature of the recycling value chain (and the fact that recyclables must be sorted once collected) needed to be connected to Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs).
“Currently, the majority of the recyclables collected from the Think Twice contract areas make their way to the Kraaifontein MRF. This scenario is excellent for suburbs surrounding the Kraaifontein MRF, but it carries a significant transport cost for recyclables which need to be transported from further afield, such as the southern suburbs.”
Two additional MRFs, which will need to be licenced, planned, designed and built, have been sighted at the Coastal Park Landfill area and the Athlone Transfer Station area. However, Davison stated it would still be a couple of years before these MRFs were constructed and available to receive recyclables from new Think Twice contracts. At present, the projected date for when the Athlone MRF may be ready to support the initiative for Ward 58 is late 2026.
“However, the City has also almost completed two smaller mini-MRFs – at Woodstock and the Parkwood area – which will likely be linked to either smaller contracts and or community employment (EPWP) opportunities within the next year or two,” wrote Davison.
As homelessness has increased following the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, so has the number of people who pick bins. Various civic organisations have placed recycling on the table as a solution that will benefit both reclaimers and residents.
A keen recycler for many years, Christie too believes that not only is recycling of huge benefit to the environment, it can also assist with social challenges. She urges residents to keep their recyclable material aside and to take it directly to recycling depots such as the one in Rosmead Avenue, Wynberg.
“If we keep only food waste in our bins then the bins left outside for the City’s weekly collection will not attract people looking for items to resell. We all know the frustration of finding litter scattered on the ground after a person living on our streets has gone through the bin,” says Christie.
She also encourages residents to avoid enabling behaviour such as cash handouts to street people.
“Almost all of them have substance abuse problems and need help to get off the streets, not to be sustained and kept on the streets. The City has programmes and rehabilitation centres to help them, but they refuse offers from our social workers time and time again. If we make it easier for them to stay outside, we inadvertently keep them on the margins of society,” says Christie.
