Hazard: Alberton transfer station prompts health concern
The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) says the Heidelberg Road Solid Waste Transfer Station only accepts domestic, garden and rubble waste in terms of the approved license.
An Alberton North resident is one of many residents who are unhappy about the unpleasant state and running of the Heidelberg Road solid waste transfer station.
She demands immediate action from the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) in resolving the disposal site’s problems head-on and discarding hazardous waste accordingly.
This follows her appalling visit to the site, where she fought off illegal waste pickers who climbed onto her vehicle as she wanted to dump her waste.
She described this as a very intimidating experience for those visiting the transfer station – one which needed law enforcers to tackle directly.
“I fought off the guys that do not belong on the dump site, despite two metro vehicles on sight. Why are they there if they cannot do the job of making sure we are safe. After keeping all my fused neon tube globes for more than a year, I thought it was time to discard of them in the correct environmental way,” she explained.
Among the objects she wanted to discard were old paint tins with small leftover paint, a small box full of batteries of all kinds and recyclable glass.
She said these were all thrown into the waste bin and not discarded into appropriate bins.
“The dump does not have correct bins for any of these harmful items. This I was told by the Ekurhuleni worker in one of the Ekurhuleni vans. What a waste of my time and petrol to do the correct thing.
“The part I cannot understand is that this is on the Natalspruit that runs up against the dump,” she said.
City’s spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the site does not accept any harmful waste such as hazardous and healthcare risk waste (medical waste), condemned food or animal carcasses.
“EMPD does deploy security guards onsite during the day and at night. They are responsible to ensure access control and safeguard the area and attend to any criminal activities that might occur onsite,” he said.
EMPD spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Kelebogile Thepa, said: “Even though the dumping site is safeguarded by a private security company contracted to the CoE, every now and then, the EMPD Alberton precinct officers with other law enforcers, do monitor the place.”
She said they also go to the extent of enforcing traffic laws next to the main entrance and ensure that there are no criminal activities taking place.
