Tshwane battles illegal dumping

The Tshwane metro is currently battling illegal dumping, including the dumping of building rubble and litter in public spaces.

This is according to environment and agriculture MMC Katlego Mathebe.

Residents north of Pretoria have noted the issue and since early this year have come together to keep their communities clean.

Recently, Shalom church of Montana and Sinoville had 322 volunteers cleaning the streets collecting 595 black refuse bags of rubbish from the side of the road.

Hanlie du Plooy, from the church, said that they clean the area up once a year as they want to make an impact in the community.

“We also removed the stickers and plastic ties from the street poles without sponsorship. All the equipment we used came from the church.”

Ward 50 councillor Lenise Breytenbach played her part by reporting the problem areas to the relevant departments. On October 3, representatives of the waste management department visited Lavender Road in Wonderboom to see the problem for themselves.

“The trees are overgrown and people use the stormwater drain to dump illegally. A few weeks ago, a homeless man’s body was found in the same stormwater drain.

“The metro had previously cleaned the area; however, people continue to dump there.”

Breytenbach said that she has been active in her community with clean-up campaigns.

Mathebe encouraged the community to use the metro’s bulk waste service, a service available for the removal of waste that is too large for a regular waste bin.

The Environment and Agriculture Management Department has compiled the below commonly asked questions about the metro’s bulk waste service offerings:

Bulk containers, also known as skips, are mainly used by businesses, communal waste services and institutions and for rudimentary services.

Households mainly use skip containers as waste storage during building renovations or events.

Any person or organisation that generates bulk waste that cannot be contained in a regular waste container may apply for the service.

It should be noted that there are two types of clients for bulk containers, namely ad hoc clients and fixed clients. Once-off users must make an EFT payment before delivery of the skip. A contract is valid for ten days. Regular users of the service are required to have an account with the City and are billed per service rendered.

Service users are advised to use cashless transactions for bulk waste services.

When should an individual, business or organisation apply for the service?

As soon as you anticipate that bulk waste will be generated.

A prospective client must complete an application form obtained from or completed at a customer care centre or waste management depot or via email to wastemanagement@tshwane.gov.za.

Fixed client applications must be accompanied by the following:

– Copy of ID of the business proprietor or director
– Water and electricity account or municipal account
– Business or company letterhead

“I would like to encourage establishments and businesses to apply for this service to manage waste and overcome illegal dumping.

“It costs the metro a lot of money to clean up illegal dumping. Cleaning up illegally dumped waste is more expensive than collecting it via the metro’s waste management services as more resources have to be made available to remove illegally dumped waste.

“The metro will not tolerate illegal dumping. We all have a role to play in keeping our communities clean,” she said.

Report illegal dumping at 012 358 9467, 012 358 0549 or 082 657 7271.

Alternatively, it can also be reported on the metro’s illegal dumping hotline on 080 111 1556.

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