{"id":85275,"date":"2023-06-05T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theoutlier.co.za\/?p=84643"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:42:01","slug":"fighting-waste-in-jhb-what-you-can-do-to-reduce-waste-or-recycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2023\/06\/05\/fighting-waste-in-jhb-what-you-can-do-to-reduce-waste-or-recycle\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting waste in Joburg: What you can do to reduce or recycle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Every month, <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-k\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10,000 people arrive in Joburg<\/a>, says the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Jack Sekwaila. The city&#8217;s growing population and industries mean more waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People moving to Johannesburg is not new. In 2018, 1.45-million tonnes of domestic waste was produced. About 85% of that ended up in Joburg\u2019s landfills. Pikitup, the city\u2019s waste management service, estimated that if things did not change, its four landfills would be full in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an attempt to decrease the amount of waste thrown away, the city decided to expand its recycling programme and made \u2018separating at source\u2019 compulsory for residents in some areas. [<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-i\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Check which areas these are here<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This (legally) requires homeowners to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Put recyclable materials such as paper as well as washed plastic, metal and glass into clear bags supplied by Pikitup. These are collected weekly on your usual bin day.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Drop-off their garden waste at one of these&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pikitup sites<\/a>&nbsp;for compositing or further processing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Implementation and take-up have been patchy, and the city does not fine residents if they don\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pikitup says that by 2022:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>460,000 households<\/strong>&nbsp;were participating in the programme. All of these residents are part of the mandatory recycling programme.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Waste generated in the city had&nbsp;<strong>decreased by 27%<\/strong>, but the majority of it was still ending up in landfills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/out-of-space-600x600-1-600x600.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85290\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Joburg is doing about its waste problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The city is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Sending rubbish to privately owned landfills<\/strong>. Joburg is using sites at Chloorkop in Edenvale and Mooiplaats in Centurion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Extending landfills.<\/strong>&nbsp;The city has plans to buy land in Ennerdale to develop a new landfill and expand current sites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can I do about Joburg\u2019s waste problem?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Join Joburg\u2019s recycling programme<\/strong>. But you can only do this if you live in one of the mandatory&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">separation-at-source areas<\/a>. If you do, call your&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-p\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">local Pikitup depot<\/a>&nbsp;to share your address, and they will collect your recycling at no extra fee. Place your recycling in a clear plastic bag next to your Pikitup bin. The compactor truck will collect your refuse, and a secondary truck will collect your recycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What if I don\u2019t live in a mandatory recycling area?<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Engage a private company<\/strong>&nbsp;to collect your recycling. They\u2019ll process it and on-sell materials.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Drop off your recyclables<\/strong>&nbsp;at collection and buy-back centres. Find the centre nearest to you in The Outlier Treevolution\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-x\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">list of recycling centres<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Drop off your garden waste, building rubble and recycling<\/strong>&nbsp;at a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pikitup collection centre<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t dump illegally.<\/strong>&nbsp;Pikitup will&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">collect unwanted bulky items<\/a>, such as fridges and mattresses. There is no charge for this service.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If recycling, garden waste and rubble are diverted for recycling or composting the lifespan of some of Joburg\u2019s landfills could be extended by years. The lifespan of Goudkoppies, for example, could be&nbsp;<strong>extended by six years<\/strong>. Other landfills which are nearing capacity could be extended by two or more years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t know where to start, download&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-q\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Treevolution\u2019s Beginner\u2019s Guide to Recycling<\/a>&nbsp;or take a look for a recycling centre on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.touchbasepro.com\/t\/d-l-vlhvx-l-a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Treevolution&#8217;s recycling map<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Outlier Local Government focuses on issues in Johannesburg.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newsletters.theoutlier.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sign up<\/a>&nbsp;to receive the next edition of our newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johannesburg&#8217;s landfills are under pressure as thousands of new residents arrive in the city every month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,446,1387],"tags":[50,273,111,274],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-85275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-government","category-news","category-the-outlier","tag-johannesburg","tag-landfills","tag-local-government","tag-recycling"],"acf":{"big_number":null,"big_number_caption":null,"big_number_link":null,"big_number_background":null,"big_number_text_colour":null,"big_number_icon":null,"big_number_wide":null,"featured_chart":null,"flourish_chart_id":null,"flourish_sub_title":null,"flourish_chart_width":null,"is_newsletter_post":null,"post_style":null,"show_on_front":null,"link_through":null,"chart_url":null,"background_colour":null,"text_colour":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86552,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85275\/revisions\/86552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85275"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=85275"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=85275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}