Johannesburg Reclaimers Call For Landfill to Be Reopened

Waste reclaimers roll down an incline on trolleys filled with recyclable materials as part of the protest of Pikitup and the City of Johannesburg’s decision to stop accepting domestic waste at the Marie Louise landfill.

• Waste reclaimers, under the banner of the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), marched in Johannesburg on Monday.
• They are protesting Pikitup’s recent decision to stop accepting domestic waste at the Marie Louise landfill.
• About 140 waste reclaimers had been left with no income since 1 September.
• Pikitup has promised reclaimers to “come up with solutions” over the next week.

Waste reclaimers, dressed in green overalls, rode their makeshift recycling trolleys through the streets of Johannesburg on Monday.

About a hundred reclaimers, under the banner of the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), are protesting Pikitup’s recent decision to stop accepting domestic waste at the Marie Louise landfill.

ARO is a member-based organisation which represents thousands of waste reclaimers who earn a living by diverting waste to recycling facilities on Johannesburg’s landfills and streets.

Many waste reclaimers have been working at the Marie Louise landfill for decades and have multiple dependents who rely on their income for food, housing and other essentials.

Earlier this month, GroundUp reported that about 140 waste reclaimers had been left with no income since 1 September when Pikitup stopped accepting domestic waste at the landfill site. Some reclaimers we interviewed had been working at the site for over 20 years, and have dependents who rely on their income for food, housing and other essentials.

Reclaimers save municipalities money that would have been spent on transporting waste to landfills. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research calculated that reclaimers nationally save municipalities about R750-million a year.

Melanie Samson, an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, described the relationship between the Johannesburg municipality and reclaimers as “abusive”. “The City and Pikitup have been benefiting from the reclaimers work for decades, but they abuse them. They ignore them. They don’t engage them,” said Samson.

No domestic waste has been dropped off at the Marie Louise landfill since the beginning of September, leaving reclaimers without a means to make a living for their families.

Pikitup’s own report indicated that the Marie Louise site would have run out of space by January 2025.

Pikitup has said its decision to suspend domestic waste at Marie Lousie is only temporary, enabling it to assess capacity and ensure continuous compliance with permit conditions.

ARO disputes this, saying Pikitup were informed at the end of August that the landfill would need to be closed indefinitely because it had exceeded its capacity and is therefore not compliant with the regulations and operational permits issued to landfill operators by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

ARO accused Pikitup and municipality of neglecting the landfill crisis. “This irresponsible abandonment of public infrastructure investment has artificially manufactured an emergency for all four of Johannesburg’s landfills, but especially Marie Louise. Pikitup now forecasts that the landfills will all be full by the end of 2026, posing the real prospect of rubbish piling up in the streets, threatening public health and polluting our scarce water resources,” said ARO.

Pikitup forecasts that Johannesburg’s landfills will all be full by the end of 2026.

Pikitup’s 2023/24 annual report states that, “Mitigating the risk of depleting landfill airspace requires significant investments beyond the government’s financial capabilities. Formulation of public-private partnerships is vital to effectively implement high-impact risk mitigations within the medium-term period.”

ARO demanded that Pikitup implement projects to extend landfill operations, and agree on a social plan for the reclaimers that might be displaced from landfills. They also condemned plans to privatise waste management.

Larry Mallela, the head of Legal and Compliance at Pikitup received the reclaimers’ memorandum on behalf of the entity. “You play a very central and integral part in our business and therefore we acknowledge you as our major stakeholder. Within the next seven days we will have a meeting to come up with solutions to your problem,” said Mallela.

But in response, a reclaimer shouted, “We don’t have seven days, we are starving right now.”

ARO has condemned plans to privatise waste management and called on the municipality to have more public input on its waste management plans.

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