26 August 2002

Elderly Mongameli Maxam is shouldering a heavy bag - full of rubbish. Inside the bag, pieces of scrap paper are neatly separated - coloured paper on one side and white paper on the other. Three times each day, Maxam will lug his heavy bag to the Dobsonville Waste Management Buy-Back Centre in Soweto. Each load will earn him about R3.

The buy-back centre is part of a council initiative to create employment for the very poor. Christa Venter, a Pikitup representative, says: "The purpose of buy-back centres is to create employment and clean up the environment. We foster community involvement in the recycling of products whilst at the same time helping to alleviate poverty."

Pikitup, a council utility, provides overall management of the Dobsonville site, but the day-to-day operations are left to a team led by Louis Molefi, the manager of the centre. There are four buy-back centres in Johannesburg, the other three being in Sandton, Robertsville and Strydom Park. Two more sites are being developed, one in Yeoville and the other in the CBD.

Pikitup workers neatly packing card boxes to be recycled

Molefi says: "We buy waste from members of the community. We then sell the rubbish to big recycling companies like Mondi, the Glass Recycling Association and other recyclers and end users." Established in 2000, the centre is visited by about 300 people carrying loads of waste on an average day. They come pushing wheel barrows, pulling carts or carrying an assortment of containers on their heads or shoulders.

Although much rubbish from the area is assembled here, the place is surprisingly neat and organised. The centre is in a huge tract of land secured by concrete slaps all round. An office is housed in a three-roomed building nearby. Drums full of bottles are neatly placed next to full crates. In the background, a huge tent used for worship by born-again evangelists dominates the landscape.

A woman, weighed down by a baby strapped on her back, and carrying a huge paper bag on her head, trudges in. She is followed by an elderly man carrying a heavy bag on his shoulder. Two men come in pulling a cart full of scrap metal. One man makes his entrance pushing a supermarket trolley full to the brim. A few metres away, people holding receipts wait in a queue to claim their money.

An old man chastises three youngsters in the queue for bunking school. "What are you doing here? You should be at school. Do you want to suffer like us?" The young men look away in embarrassment. A shebeen owner comes in to ask how much he can get for one bottle. "38 cents" he is told. He shakes his head in disbelief and leaves.

Workers sift through bottles, organising and separating them. Brandy bottles are put on one side. Brown beer dumpies are separated from green ones. "We pay 38c for a straight bottle and for dumpies, we pay 12c per kilogram," explains Faniswa Nkosana, a worker at the site. Another group of workers separates coloured paper from white paper. For many, the centre is their only means of survival.

A pikitup skip full of bottles ready for recycling

Anna Malinda, a 51 year old, mother of eight, says she comes to the site daily to sell everything from paper to scrap metal. Her husband is unemployed and the family depends on her meagre earnings for its subsistence. "With the money I get here, at least I can buy maize meal and bread. I try to make sure that my children don't go to bed hungry." Malinda collects bottles from a veld far away in Mofolo. She walks around the township daily, collecting rubbish to sell. "I'm poor. The money we get is not enough. Walking alone in the veld is not safe, but what can I do?" she asks with sadness in her eyes. She makes between R7 and R10 a day selling rubbish.

Venter says that waste management buy-back centres were established "to promote recycling and to reduce the amount of waste going to the Land Fill rubbish dump". For people living in abject poverty, the centre provides the primary source of income, and a way of contributing towards cleaning the environment.

But to return to Maxam, who stays in a backroom shack nearby. At 65, he qualifies for a pension grant from the State, but he is still waiting for his application to be processed. In the meantime, he subsists on recycling. "For two years I've been doing this job. I go around schools collecting all kinds of waste. On an average day I make three trips to the site. I bring paper, then bottles and finally, scrap metal. I finish working at four when they close."

For his effort, Maxam manages to raise an average of R8 per day, money which goes some way towards meeting his humble needs. With this money, he can buy food, soap and other essentials. "This place is really helping us. With the money I make here, I can take care of myself." Maxa clearly takes pride in his job, "It is better than begging and we keep the township clean."

Source: City of Johannesburg web site

	Mongameli Maxam carrying a bag full of paper - his only means of subsistence

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Once a place of fear The site where the buy-back centre is based was for years the barracks of the notorious apartheid era municipal police known as the kitskonstabels. They were called "bo gqoka si hambe" - Dress up and let's go! - the words they are reputed to have used on their regular raids to arrest rent defaulters and political activists. In those days, the place inspired fear. Today, the barracks have been demolished to make way for the environment-friendly initiative.

A man pulls a cart full of scrap metal to be sold for recycling