Rondebosch residents have called out the City of Cape Town for not emptying green bins situated in the suburb regularly.
Earlier this month, People’s Post reported that the recent addition of extra green bins along Campground Road in Rondebosch was being blamed for an increase in litter at the Rondebosch Common.
According to local resident Brett Adams, street people were scratching in the bins for scraps, leaving a mess. “The wind then blows all the papers and so on onto the common,” he told People’s Post.
The City’s Green Litter Bin Project was launched in July 2009. These bins are commonly found in business areas, roads leading to train stations, bus terminals and taxi ranks.
They are meant for passersby wanting to throw away their chip packets or chocolate wrappers, for example.
However, incidents of misuse have resulted in the efficacy of these bins being questioned, and in some cases, communities have even asked for them to be removed.
Besides street people, the blame for the overflowing bins has been placed at the door of some business or shop owners who use them to dump their rubbish or even some residents who use them to get rid of their household rubbish.
Bruce Burmeister, chair of the Rondebosch Community Improvement District (RCID), says the bottom line is that the bins are only serving a purpose when they are cleaned regularly.
“Left for just a week, they overflow and the vagrants trash them to the point where they become an eyesore,” says Burmeister.
Commenting on the issue in a Facebook post, local resident Belinda Anvil says the problem of overflowing bins lies more with the City not servicing the bins often enough.
“These bins are needed and are being utilised by conscious people who are throwing their rubbish in the right place. The bins are not serviced on a regular basis. There doesn’t seem to be a weekly schedule as to when they are supposed to be emptied,” she wrote.
According to the City’s Mayco member for urban waste management, Grant Twigg, the responsibility for emptying the green bins lies with Urban Waste Management. Twiggs says bins are scheduled to be emptied daily.
Asked if any complaints had been lodged with regards to the green bins in Campground Road in Rondebosch, Twiggs said the only complaint on record for the area in recent weeks was submitted on Tuesday 29 March “related to people living on the street, causing a mess”.
“The City does, however, acknowledge that there was a miscommunication between depots recently that resulted in bins not being cleared for several days at the beginning of April,” he says.
Burmeister says the first step is to meet with Solid Waste and to find out why they are not attending to the bins located at the common as they should.
“If they cannot guarantee weekly emptying, then they must be removed,” says Burmeister.
Besides the green bins at the common, those located close to Silwood Centre have also proved to be a problem in the past. People’s Post was told that RCID had requested Solid Waste to remove the bins.
Twiggs says that Urban Waste Management is not aware of this request “but will assess the area”.
“However, please note that depending on local factors removing the bin may exacerbate the litter problem,” he says
In Anvil’s post, she suggests that rather than removing the bins, which she believes are needed, the community should get involved by logging a report so that the bins are serviced whenever they overflow.
Twiggs encourages residents to report the misuse of green bins to get rid of business or household rubbish.
“This practice is illegal. Businesses or residents can be fined if the evidence is available. The Solid Waste By-Law unit patrols the area frequently.”
- Report the illegal use of green bins to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre, by dialling 0860 103089.
