Recycling puts food on the table
"I usually wake up at 02:00 to search for items with my work partner.”
The Advertiser recently spoke to some local recyclers about why they recycle.
Most said they were forced to do recycling because of starvation and a lack of job opportunities.
Phatsisi Phuti has been recycling for five years and doesn’t think he will quit soon.
“Recycling keeps me away from doing illegal things, as I’m unemployed. The little money I get from doing it is better than stealing. “We have a planned timetable for every week; we know where we need to go to collect any recyclable items.
On Monday, we go to Impala Park to collect anything made of plastic, boxes and white paper. Tuesday we go to Beyers Park. Wednesday to Morganridge. Thursday to Parkrand and on Friday to Dayanglen,” said Phuti.
Another recycler, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he sometimes walks from Driefontein in Boksburg to neighbouring suburbs in Benoni and other areas to collect anything recyclable.
“We only take two loads a day. Our main issue is that motorists do not respect us on the roads. Some of them even bump our trolleys and bags that are full of recyclable items.
“What also hurts us is that many residents throw good food away in their dustbins. We would like to appeal to people to rather put this food outside of the dustbin wrapped in a plastic bag on collection day so that we can take it while we are searching bins for recyclable items.
“It is very difficult to do this recycling ‘job’ because we are sometimes robbed of our trolleys and bags as we travel around.
“I usually wake up at 02:00 to search for items with my work partner.
“We also need good trolleys that we can use as we do our job and we plead to good Samaritans to aid us by donating these trolleys to us.
“They can find us at the recycling business in Madeley Road,” said the recycler.
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