According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), waste pickers in 2014 saved the country between R310 million and R750 million in terms of landfill space.
Working with waste is not an easy job. In addition to low, unstable incomes and poor working conditions, waste pickers (also known as micro-collectors) are often outcasts in society. Working with waste has long been considered ‘dirty work’ in South Africa; however, through the tyre recycling initiative developed by Redisa (Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa), this is changing.
Each year, the country produces roughly 170 000 tonnes of tyre waste which needs to be repurposed rather than dumped or illegally burnt. Redisa plans to collect and reprocess all waste tyres by 2017.
In the past, only four per cent of this waste was being recycled and processed and currently, 70 per cent of waste tyres are being dealt with. A number of individuals are making money through their involvement in the logistics chain that Redisa has developed to ensure the environmental damage caused by waste tyres is eliminated.
Mfana Mthembu (52) is one of the micro- collectors in Orange Farm who has found an opportunity from collecting waste tyres. Since becoming a micro-collector, he has recruited a few of his community members and they have registered their cooperative, Mbanjwa Multi-Purpose Co-Operative Limited. The cooperative has grown and now employs seven people.
Mfana is also responsible for coordinating one of the Redisa micro-collector drop-off containers in his community. These are used to store the collected tyres before they are transported to a nearby depot or a recycling plant. In addition, he is going through a training programme organised by Redisa which focuses on developing the skills he needs to run and manage a successful business. In terms of the challenges he has experienced, Mfana says many people do not understand the role that micro-collectors play.
‘They view us as a nuisance when we are actually contributing to saving the economy millions,’ he says.
