Joburg’s transformation into a world-class city begins with presenting a clean and hygienic environment to all city residents and visitors. In this regard, the city’s official waste management service provider, Pikitup Johannesburg (Pty) Ltd, has a crucial role to play.
Founded in January 2001 with the City of Johannesburg as its sole shareholder, Pikitup took its place in a society recovering from the mistakes of the past but energised by hope for the future. It was an era of comprehensive change at all levels of national and local government, and not least in the waste management sector. Traditionally, South Africa had followed an ‘end of pipe’ waste management philosophy that resulted in a small percentage of waste being recycled, with the remaining bulk of the waste stream being disposed of at landfill sites. With urban real estate at a premium, and our natural resource base under growing pressure, a new national waste management strategy was needed — and formulated.
The new integrated Waste Management Policy and the National Waste Management strategy seeks to minimise the waste stream going to landfills, while extracting maximum value from the waste stream at all stages of the collection and disposal process. The strategy also introduced a slew of rigorous new environmental regulations, designed to bring South Africa’s waste management in line with the Best Environmental Practices In the world
As the biggest waste management company in Africa , Pikitup not only operates entirely within the strict new regulations stipulated by law, the company has also formulated and has commenced the implementation of its own sustainable integrated waste management strategy to turn Joburg into one of the cleanest cities in the world. Current world Best Practice standards dictate that only 10% of the waste stream should end up in landfills. The broad goal of Pikitup’s strategy is to support the national vision of ‘Zero waste to landfills by 2022’. While it is a practically unattainable goal — some waste will always have to be disposed of at landfills — it nevertheless remains an ideal and focused goal.
Even a cursory glance at the numbers reveals the enormity of the challenge facing Pikitup. The 1625 square kilometre area of the City is home to 3,8 million people and around 787 000 dwellings. Apart from collecting and disposing of the domestic refuse generated by the city residents, Pikitup also offers commercial services to some 17 000 businesses in the city and litter picks and sweeps approximately 9 000 kilometres of streets within Joburg’s eleven regions. The city generates a total of 1,6 million tons of waste per annum. To put some perspective on that figure, it’s equal to the combined weight of Chicago’s Sears Tower and New York’s Empire State Building — doubled.
Pikitup`s present services are restricted to the geographical area of the City of Johannesburg and is well equipped to meet Joburg's waste collection and disposal demands. The company has over 4 000 employees operating from 11 depots, with its fleet of around 500 vehicles constantly shuttling between customers, its 4 landfill sites, incinerator and 42 garden refuse sites across the city. Pikitup has modernised and improved waste collection systems by constantly upgrading its fleet, and has delivered 472 000 new 240 litre wheeled bins in the phased replacement of the old refuse bag system. Yet the challenge lies not just in the mere act of collecting and disposing of the city's waste, but also in how this is accomplished.
Recycling is key to the twin goals of minimising the waste going to landfills and extracting maximum value from the waste stream. Separating recyclable materials — glass, paper, metals and certain plastics — out of the waste stream reduces the bulk of waste going to landfills, eases the strain on our natural resources, and helps to create employment in both the informal and formalised waste reclamation sectors.
Pikitup works with recycling companies to launch and support recycling initiatives, particularly at community level. Pikitup’s support has been vital in the establishment of five community-run recycling buy-back centres located across the city, and more centres are planned for the future. Pikitup is actively involved in recycling research, and is investigating recycling joint ventures with international partners. The company supports recycling and processing of green garden waste into soil-enhancing compost, via the recent establishment of its pilot Composting Plant at the Panorama site in Roodepoort.
As the official waste management company for Joburg, Pikitup provides services for the City’s major events, such as the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Both events were a great success and, apart from the obvious benefits of presenting a clean and hygienic city image to Joburg’s international guests, allowed Pikitup to showcase and refine its strategy, ensuring that the influx of visitors created no increase in the waste going to landfills.
While Pikitup has accepted custodianship of the city's cleanliness, the city's residents also have a vital role to play. Unfortunately, there is a pervasive mindset among Joburg citizens that tolerates littering and illegal dumping. The negative consequences of this mindset extend far beyond the visible blight of unhealthy illegal dumps. It costs the City R170 million per annum to clean up street littering and illegal dump sites - money that could be far better utilised on 7 350 RDP houses, 588 new ambulances or any number of other projects to bring the city up to world-class standards. Pikitup's ongoing 'Project 100 Spots' campaign is not only dedicated to cleaning up illegal dumping sites, but also informing communities about the hazards of illegal dumping, and encouraging them to take stewardship of these sites.
It is however not any one individual or company's job to turn Joburg into a world-class city, instead as our company’s slogan states,
Serving you, saving our environment
Pikitup supports the City's goals fully, and also supports others who share the vision of a world-class Joburg. We welcome suggestions from any of our customers, the citizens of Joburg, on how to improve our service. In turn, we will gladly advise or assist businesses or other City roleplayers in solving their waste management issues. By working together with focused goals and a shared vision, there is no reason why we cannot turn Joburg into a truly world-leading city like Copenhagen or Singapore.
