Gamiet Xavier comes from Mitchell’s Plain with a trolley four days a week to pick through the rubbish in Khayelitsha’s streets for anything of value he can sell to make a living.
On Monday, he says, a panga-wielding “tik kop” tried to rob him in Phakamisa.
“I was coming from the scrapyard in E Section, where I had sold a few empties and other recyclables. Those tik-smoking boys saw me coming out, and they tried their luck.”
He escaped after residents came to his rescue, but encounters like this are one of the many hardships waste pickers like Mr Xavier face.
He is one of 90 000 people in South Africa who make their living from sifting through rubbish on the country’s streets and dumps, according to the South African Waste Pickers Association, an organisation of between 4000 to 6000 registered waste pickers from all nine provinces.
The association says waste pickers play a vital role by keeping plastic, cardboard, paper and metals out of landfills, and by helping to recycle these materials, they reduce the need to manufacture more of them, thereby reducing air pollution that adds to global warming.
Mr Xavier says he earns about R300 a week on slow days, and then there was the time when he struck it lucky and found a gold ring.
“I took it to a scrapyard, and the guys said I must take it to a jeweller, where I got my very first R3000 in my life. I had to write an affidavit stating that it was not a stolen item.”
He says coloured waste pickers used to face threats when collecting in Khayelitsha, but that has subsided since black pickers are also working in Mitchell’s Plain.
“We are all trying to make a living, so everybody understands that we are cool now – if only the attacks from young tsotsis can stop.”
Cables, screens, radios, machine parts, kettles, and TV and computer components are all highly prized among waste pickers, he says, adding that they separate the paper, plastic and metals from the rubbish as these can be sold.
With the country’s growing mountains of waste putting ever more pressure on its landfills, mayoral committee member for urban waste management Grant Twigg urges the public to support waste pickers.
His department has done just this with donations of heavy-duty bags and gloves, hand sanitiser and boxes of latex gloves to waste pickers in various parts of the city.
“There is a lot of unrealised potential in the informal recycling sector that can be unlocked with the right support. The donation of bags and health and safety equipment will allow informal recyclers to process more recyclables without putting their health at risk,” he says.
The City is also trying to get waste pickers registered as formal recyclers to give them more credibility in communities where they are all to often regarded as a nuisance or safety risk.
“The City has been directed by the national waste management strategy to strengthen and expand the role of waste pickers in the waste management system and recycling economy,” says Mr Twigg.
