eMBALENHLE – Several community members of eMbalenhle began a cleaning campaign that is focused on illegal dumping sites.
The campaign began at extension 17 and will be rolled out in other extensions.
These residents said the purpose of their campaign is to create a safe and healthy environment, because they have noticed that people forgot about hygiene.
“We want to stop illegal dumping and promote good health.
“Our country is facing the coronavirus pandemic which requires of us to be hygienic and to stop the spread, but when we are living in a filthy environment we are all going to be infected. That’s why we took this initiative,” said Mr Solly Galela, community member.
“If we are not a careful, we can create other illnesses through illegally dumping waste and hazardous chemicals,” said Mr Galela.
These residents are ready to face those who dump waste at night.
They said the community must stop this behaviour.
“We also request our municipality to play its role by collecting waste as per their schedule,” concluded Mr Galela.
Govan Mbeki Municipality Household waste collection
• Residents must firstly repair, reduce or re-use waste generated or taking part in recycling initiatives to minimise the volumes of general waste entering our waste disposal sites.
• Households do receive a once per week refuse removal service between Monday and Friday on a pre-determined day as per refuse removal schedule.
• Residential collection service is provided between the hours of 6am and 10pm. In order to avoid service disruptions, household and garden refuse must be placed at the curb before 6am on the scheduled collection day.
• Refuse not in containers or bin liners (black refuse bags) will not be collected. It is vital that all refuse is in a tightly sealed refuse bag.
• Your refuse is collected manually and you must follow the 50/50 rule. A municipal employee must be able to pick up the bag using one hand without the bag tearing.
• All refuse must be placed on the edge of the travelled portion of the roadway.
• On the rare occasions when extreme weather conditions occur, please continue to leave your container or bin liner out on the curb side as the waste shall be collected as soon as possible.
• On occasions where refuse is not collected per schedule as a result of vehicle breakages, the service will be rendered as soon as possible up to a maximum period of one week;
• Spilled waste as a result of scavenging or animals, torn bags or overturned bins will not be cleaned and removed. Spilled waste or excess waste will be placed back in the bin by the resident.
• Refuse must not be stacked over water or electricity meters, under low hanging branches or within 1 (one) meter of fire hydrants.
• A total number of six (6) 85l black refuse bins, bin liners/ bags, will be removed per household per week. The six 85 litre refuse bins, bin liners or bags includes garden waste.
• A total number of two (2) 240 litre wheelie bins will be emptied per household per week, provided the waste is contained into a maximum of six (6) bin liners. Besides the above mentioned, all new developments must also submit an IndWMP with proof of recycling initiative. Garden waste collection
• “Garden waste” means waste, which is generated as a result of normal gardening activities such as grass cutting, leaves, plants and flowers and does not include branches, soil, rock, earth or building or demolition waste.
• Residents are encouraged to recycle garden waste as it can be turned to compost.
• Garden waste can be transported by the resident or own service provider directly to one of the municipal disposal sites situated in Bethal, Kinross, Leandra and Secunda.
• Branches and bulky garden waste will not be collected by the municipality.
Govan Mbeki Municipality Buy-back Centre at eMbalenhle
Govan Mbeki Municipality has a buy-back centre in eMbalenhle, and there are six formal private buy-back centres within the municipality, situated in Bracken, eMbalenhle, Secunda, Kinross and Bethal.
A buy-back centre is a multi-recycling centre that buys recyclable waste such as paper, plastic, cans and glass from people and then sells it to recycling companies for further processing.
Among the seven buy-back centres, an average of 300 tons of waste is recycled per month.
All of these centres are easily accessible to the community, and residents are encouraged to separate their waste at home and take the recyclables to one of these centres.
The municipality plays a major role in encouraging recycling initiatives within the municipality with great success, and since implemented, it has created many jobs within the area.
It is a requirement that, all large waste generators, such as shopping malls, institutions, businesses, generators of industrial waste, building waste, event waste, hazardous waste, residential group houses (townhouses, flats, hostels) submit to the municipality an Industry Waste Management Plan (IndWMP) for approval by the manager for Solid Waste Management before an occupancy certificate is recommended for approval.
The municipality has also initiated a programme in co-operation with some of the buy-back centres to clean access roads and parks of all litter and all recyclable material collected is to the advantage of the centre, who in turn employ locals to do the job.
On average two tons of liquor bottles are recycled per month from access roads in and around Secunda, Evander and eMbalenhle alone.
By reducing the volume of waste entering waste disposal sites (landfill sites) through recycling, GMM will save on the already scarce landfill site airspace and the negative pollution effects.
