A pilot project for residents to separate their waste at their properties is beginning in the northwestern suburbs serviced by the Waterval Depot.

PIKITUP is launching a pilot recycling project in Joburg aimed at educating people about separating recyclable goods at home.

Separating recyclable waste at home

Called Separation at Source, it will be carried out in some of the northwestern suburbs and informal settlements serviced by the Waterval Depot. Its primary objective is to have people separate their recyclable waste at home, implemented in partnership with Mondi Recycling, the paper recyclers.

The area serviced by the Waterval Depot was selected as the region where the initiative will be piloted, says Pansy Jali, Pikitup's acting manager of communications. It includes a broad spectrum of property types, including stand-alone houses, flats, townhouses, cluster homes and various sized businesses.

A six- to eight-month pilot project, it will promote a whole new way of thinking and bring about lifestyle changes to households and businesses in the Waterval Depot area.

It began on 1 September with an education phase to inform residents about the initiative. Some 60 local youngsters have been trained to teach residents about the pilot. However, no official date has yet been set for the actual recycling at source to begin.

Once up and running, it will be started in those areas whose waste is collected on a Monday. It will continue into the participating suburbs whose waste is collected on Tuesday, and so forth.

Initial phase
The initial phase will target 57 000 households and properties will receive three additional items - an additional black wheelie bin with a green lid, a clear bag, and an orange bag. Residents will be required to sign for the additional litter containers, and they will be available at no cost.

The wheelie bin with the green lid will only be for garden waste, including twigs, leaves, grass cuttings and so on, but not huge logs. The clear bag will be for all the recyclable materials such as cans, plastic and glass bottles, and milk and juice cartons. The orange bag will be for paper and cardboard.

Spreading the message

The black wheelie bins already in use will be for all non-recyclable items, such as food scraps, light bulbs, broken crockery and paint tins et cetera.

All four litter receptacles will be collected on the usual day of that suburb. The orange bags will be replaced after six months and the clear bags will be reissued on a weekly basis.

The pilot project will try to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, says Thabiso Taaka, the chief operations officer at Pikitup. A landfill is the allocated destination of waste that is collected by Pikitup.

He points out that the company wants to spend money on 80 percent prevention, recycling and energy recovery and 20 percent on disposal at landfills.

Clean city
This project will be implemented to ensure a clean and healthy city, says Jali. It will also try to reduce environmental degradation and to meet and comply with the Waste Act.

Pikitup has employed and trained local youth who already visiting residents, educating them about Separation at Source. They will explain the project in detail and answer residents' questions.

In turn, residents need to participate as it will help Pikitup learn the best way to roll out the project across Joburg. It will also help to draw up practical ways of incorporating informal traders into the broader recycling business.

One of Pikitup's key initiatives is domestic separation at source. This will allow residents to do their bit for the environment and help keep Joburg clean.

Some of the aims of Separation at Source, Jali says, are to recover recyclable waste; minimise the volume of waste sent to landfills; job creation; promote compost production from organic waste; and to encourage residents to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Waste collection days will not change.

For further information regarding the pilot recycling project, call the Pikitup contact centre on 011 712 5200 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Alternatively visit the Pikitup website.

Areas that will take part in Separation at Source:

Related stories:

• Recycling at source tackled head on
• Pikitup kicks off recycling project
• Summit to look at clean city
• Pikitup red cards litterbugs
• Line up the bins, it's collection day
• Ahead of the game, Jozi cleans up
• Sisonke underground bins opened
• Joburg to tap landfill energy
• Pikitup