A win-win solution to assist bin pickers

Pat Flesch, Diep River

Friends and I walk every morning on a Friday during bin collection in the area. Over the years we have met up with the same selfless people, who make a meagre living and come out to do this vital service, going through bins thus preventing unnecessary waste ending up in the landfill.

The impressive part of their operation is that when they have finished, there is not a scrap of anything to be seen. This I feel is in part due to one of the residents in the area providing coffee and sandwiches to the pickers during Covid who greatly appreciated the kindness.

As we walk on a Friday, we often discuss ways to improve the sorting process but have never produced a practical idea. Until, I recently visited the Plettenberg Bay area.

The Bitou Municipality has a very dynamic cleaning project run with the help of the residents, who go out in groups collecting litter. However, it was the way households manage their recyclables that made me think this was something we could duplicate here. What they do is put all clean plastic, glass, paper, etc together in a separate transparent bin bag and leave it next to their black bin for collection. Then all the bin pickers must do, is sort through the transparent bag’s contents without having to endure going through the rest of the unsavoury garbage.

For those people who have less considerate bin pickers than the ones we meet, it will solve the problem of having to wash out their bins on a weekly basis and stop mess in the streets, while giving dignity to the people who are at the core of waste management in our City.

All we must do is buy two different bin bags, which won’t cost anymore, but make bin collection day more pleasurable for everyone.

A great win-win solution that could be replicated all over Cape Town.