After winning a national award for the best community recycling initiative in 2024, the Fichardtpark Neighbourhood Association (FNA) has taken its recycling initiatives to a new level.
The FNA recently handed over 20 trolleys to street pickers as part of a project that will not only help these people making a living from recycling, but also gather useful data.
Jacques Meiring, general manager of the FNA, says that in Fichardtpark alone 50 pickers are active across the neighbourhood when household waste is removed on a Thursday. This surprising number fits into the bigger picture if one takes into account that there are around 132 streets in this neighbourhood, with 2 791 houses.
Street pickers have in the last few years increasingly moved into neighbourhoods to pick through waste before it is removed by the Mangaung Metro or private waste removers. These individuals identify recyclable and re-usable materials within the waste stream that goes to landfill sites.
While going through household waste, they are often met with the hostility and anger of residents, since some do litter in the recycling process.
The National Waste Management Strategy of South Africa has addressed these challenges with the formation of the South African Waste Pickers Association. Meiring says waste pickers make an important contribution by reducing waste that goes to landfill sites.
“They deliver on average 15kg of recyclables per day to buy-back centres and remove as much as 750kg per day out of the waste stream,” he explains.
To get the project moving, Henriëtte Botha from FS E Waste requested the Electronics Waste Association of South Africa (Ewesa) to donate the 20 platform trolleys.
Trollies was distributed across several companies: Six to Mangaung Projects, ten to Osman Recycling, one to FS Ewaste and one to the Jean Webber House.
These facilities will provide data to the FNA on a quaterly basis.
