Litter stains the image of Bedfordview
Dumping of household refuse into the swivel bins on the side of the road is illegal, said Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s (EMM) spokesperson, Mr Samuel Modiba.
Mr Modiba was responding to complaints of residents of the flats along Kirkby Road in Bedfordview.
One of the residents, Mr Farouk Jogiat, said that a number of people leave big boxes and filled big refuse bags next to the swivel bins along this road.
“Some of the people are too lazy to wake up early to take out their household refuse to where the municipal workers will take them. Then when they leave to go to work or the malls during the day, they take their refuse bags and put them into these bins. It looks messy as it stays there the whole day as, most of the time, the EMM’s cleaning team would have already passed by for the day. Sometimes vagrants open these bags trying to find something they can use. That may be dangerous as there might be expired stuff in there,” said Mr Jogiat.
He added that the rubbish tarnishes the image of the suburb.
“This is an up-market suburb but this makes it look like a slum. We have to love our environment and keep it clean,” Mr Jogiat said.
Mr Modiba said that the swivel bins along this road are cleaned every day because this route is connected to the shopping centre.
He added that though the bins were made for the pedestrians, EMM’s employees clean everything.
“Boxes are household refuse, they need to be put inside refuse bags and placed outside with the 240 litre dustbin on the collection date according to the calendar schedule. Kirkby Road is where flats are situated. It is a high density area. Tenants dump their household refuse daily in the swivel bins instead of taking it to their bin yard for compaction. We are experiencing challenges in this area due to noncompliance with our bylaws,” said Mr Modiba.
