News Bally Clare Garden Launch

Pikitup Launches Johannesburg’s First “Centre of Excellence” Garden Site

Pikitup’s ongoing quest for innovative waste and environmental management solutions is reflected in its Ballyclare Garden Site, Johannesburg’s first Centre of Excellence facility, which was launched in December 2006.

The Centre exemplifies Pikitup’s overriding goal of providing quality services to the people of Johannesburg.

The Ballyclare site`s debut clears the way for Pikitup to take green waste processing to the next level. The Centre, based in Ballyclare Drive, Bryanston, will provide the community with access to the latest technology alongside various recycling activities, varying from paper, tin, glass, plastic and oil recycling to E-Waste recycling, the company’s latest initiative.

Pikitup’s Centres of Excellence concept is in direct response to the growing demand for environmentally friendly facilities in the City of Johannesburg. The company plans to open a further nine centres around the city during the course of 2007 and 2008.

“One of our goals was to make the Centre of Excellence as user-friendly as possible, allowing people easy excess to the facilities they require. We ensured that the site would be laid out in such a manner that users could drive in, make use of the chosen facility and drive out with the minimum of hassle.”

The site is equipped with a state-of-the-art low-speed shredder that will begin the recycling process of garden waste on site. Tree stumps up to 400mm in diameter, as well as branches, can be shredded to produce mulch.

Since the Ballyclare site is based in a residential area, the noise levels of the shredder is kept to an acceptable 32 revs per minute (rpm), which is no louder than a stationary truck with its engine on.

Pikitup has also installed a bin rail shuttle system, which is an automated bin handling system that works in conjunction with the shredder to prepare the processed material for collection by the trucks.

The company has also built a cement slab around the system to facilitate easy disposal of garden waste. The area demarcated by the disposal wall is continually serviced by a front-end loader that collects the green waste and feeds it to the shredder, which processes the material. The new disposal facility is a time-saving device, as it speeds up the off-loading process.

We are currently increasing our focus on recycling in the city. All of this forms part of our new strategy aimed at escalating recycling activities through projects such as this one. By working with the various communities in Johannesburg, we hope to increase awareness around recycling and encourage the residents to participate in the practice.

The site is currently Pikitup’s biggest and busiest garden site in the city — handling between 3 000 and 3 500 tonnes of garden refuse a month. To cope with the volumes of garden waste, the company has assigned three trucks to clear the site on a daily basis. Over weekends additional vehicles are used to ensure availability of space at the site.

With the introduction of the new technology the levels of productivity at the site will increase by 50%, translating directly into improved service delivery to the residents and improved economies for Pikitup. The company will, for example, require only one vehicle to service the site, thus freeing the other two to service other areas.

The ultimate goal is to minimise waste going to landfill sites. The Centres of Excellence will play a dominant role in reducing the amount of waste being disposed of at landfills , as they will divert recyclable material that usually ends up on landfill sites.

Separation of waste at the source is increasingly becoming an important component in successfully executing Pikitup’s Integrated Waste Management Plan, which takes cognisance of various methodologies aimed at managing waste. One of the primary aims of the plan is to actively promote recycling activities in various forms, which in turn should have a significant impact on overall waste minimisation.

The development of the Centres of Excellence also forms part of Pikitup’s 16 year strategic road map, which aims to conserve air space at the city’s landfill sites and introduce new technologies, processes and systems to address the national targets of 50% reduction of waste to landfill sites by 2012 and 70% reduction of waste to landfills by 2022.

“As part of our road map implementation we would like to include an extensive public information sharing and education process in order to secure the co-operation and support of Johannesburg’s residents, thereby assisting us to increase recycling activities and achieve the desired goal.

2006/12/15