After the success of the Green-up project, where residents were trained to turn recyclables into a viable business, the City and PETCO have continued to work towards formalising the informal recycling sector in Makhaza.
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Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg, attended a ceremony on Wednesday, 7 December, to hand over certificates, branded containers and personal protective equipment (PPE) to 20 informal recyclers operating in the Makhaza area.
The individuals have recently completed training on turning their recycling activities into a viable and sustainable business.
Following the success of the Green-up project in the same area, the residents approached the city for assistance, asking if similar assistance was available for their members.
South Africa’s new extended producer responsibility regulations require industries that make waste to run or contribute to programmes that reduce the waste burden on society.
Many “producer responsibility” groups are looking to work with the informal sector to increase recycling and find other ways to reduce waste in the country.
One of these is PETCO, which indicated it had funding available to assist this group of residents in this case.
PETCO’s role in such municipal waste management partnership projects comes in the form of training, equipment, and infrastructure support for waste pickers and buy-back centres.
PETCO also provides training and skill development for municipal employees involved in the waste management sector. In this case, three days of training were provided, as well as uniforms and PPE, and branded trolleys will be provided early next year.
Alderman Grant Twigg said:
“The City is happy to be partnering with PETCO, and we are looking forward to working together on similar initiatives going forward. This project provides economic benefits and skill development to participants while helping to keep the area clean and diverting waste from landfills.”
He continued, “With the implementation of extended producer responsibility regulations, companies are looking for more ways to reduce their impact on the environment, either by redesigning products to be recyclable or otherwise by ensuring that recycling of their products and product packaging takes place. This is creating a lot of opportunities for job creation in the waste management sector, and the city is working to facilitate the growth of this sector wherever possible.”
With this training and equipment, the participants in the project now have the tools and knowledge to make their businesses viable and sustainable in the longer term, ensuring they can continue helping with society’s waste challenges well into the future.
PETCO CEO Cheri Scholtz said, “We at PETCO are acutely aware of the importance of informal collection systems in Cape Town. In many markets, they are responsible for collecting a significant portion of recyclables and packaging in particular. As such, we are constantly looking for ways to work with informal collection systems to both help increase collection and recycling rates and also improve the lives and working conditions of informal collectors.”
She continued, “Currently, there are very few municipal separation-at-source collection systems, so we work with interested municipalities to establish collection projects and expand PETCO collection into new areas.”
PETCO has held 28 training workshops with 1,357 attendees in eight provinces this year, as well as three accredited business training workshops.
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Picture: City of Cape Town