SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROJECT

LAUNCH DATE:

The Solid Waste Management Programme was launched in 2005 after several learning exchanges across Africa.

IMPLEMENTATION AGENCIES:

Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) and the Coalition of the Urban Poor (CUP).

COMMUNITY PARTNERS:

Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) and the Poor People’s Movement (PPM).

FUNDING PARTNERS:

CESVI Cooperation and Development (Italy), Ford Foundation, and the City of Cape Town Solid Waste Department.

PROJECT COSTS:

Development Capital: R500,000 (CESVI)
Capacity Building: R75,000 (City of Cape Town)
Exchange: R100,000 (Ford)

CONTACTS:
 
Gerschwin Kohler (CORC): +27 82 3326794

CONTEXT

Solid waste is a growing management problem for big and medium sized cities across the globe, the amount of waste produced each year is on the rise, landfills are brimming over, and environmental degradation is rapidly occurring. But solid waste can and has provided a number of environmental and social opportunities as well – recycled materials do not need to be reproduced by the manufacturing industry (minimizing emissions) and can be used to generate a livelihood for the poor. With its potential for job creation, solid waste management has the opportunity to be what Laila Iskanda (CID, El Cairo) has called a “people-centered issue” which deserved a “second look from planners, officials, and decision makers.”
Although informal waste collectors – or “trash-pickers” – are often subject to the scorn of society, they are singularly responsible for South Africa’s record as one of the top waste recyclers in the world. However, the lack of acknowledgement from the state, the competition between formal and informal collection systems, and the absence of community organization, results in a particularly harsh situation for informal collectors and causes damage to the economies of the poor. Few waste collectors then, have been able to make a decent livelihood from this work – and must be content with a small pittance squeezed from the secondary economy. The most successful collectors have managed to negotiate recycling contracts with businesses or housing complexes, securing reliable sources of mixed waste every week. These prearranged contracts save time and effort, allowing collectors to increase their income.
In order to create a proper livelihood, it is necessary for solid waste collectors to organize and reclaim their rights to determine informal sector recycling activities. Through community mobilization with FEDUP, PPM and OVC, waste collectors can generate the critical mass necessary to advocate for recognition from the government and private waste management services, improved working conditions and better treatment at city dumps and recycling depots, and most importantly, the authority and capacity to negotiate profitable contracts that are advantageous for the poor. The benefits of such a community-based solid waste system are manifold: providing an income for the urban poor living on the margins of society, while creating a sensible, environmentally sustainable solution to solid waste management.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Since waste collection, transfer and disposal has always been a survival strategy for the extreme poor, Shack Dwellers International initiated several learning exchanges in Cairo, Cape Town, and Nairobi to share information about successful informal recycling projects occurring throughout Africa (2005). After these exchanges, the Coalition of the Urban Poor partnered with FEDUP, PPM and OVC to create a sustainable resource management programme focused on environmental awareness, community clean-ups, and solid waste recycling.
In the last two years, the Solid Waste Management Programme has engaged 25 savings groups (130 women) located in some of the poorest areas in the city, including, Atlantis, Khayelitsha, Du Noon and Mbekweni. Owning and managing the entire process, women from these communities negotiate contracts with local businesses to collect, sort, and bulk solid waste. The processed waste is then collected and transported to industrial processing factories for retail sales. Every two weeks, the savings groups are paid and the income is divided amongst their members.
In February 2007, we opened a centralised Recycling Depot in Philippi to enable the savings groups to scale up their waste management services and become financially sustainable. Three months later, the Recycling Depot was forced to close due to continued vandalism and theft. The need for a centralised depot still exists and more secure premises are currently being explored.
PRESENT SITUATION

Given our contemporary tendencies toward overproduction and consumption of increasingly non-recyclable products, we need to find an environmentally sustainable, pro-poor waste management solution. Landfills are failing due to logistical costs and the threat of contamination (particularly in the global south where environmental protection is lax, and control mechanisms ineffective), and incineration has provoked strong reactions because of increased pollution. Of course, landfills and pollution from incineration disproportionately affect the poor – sites of waste management and processing are generally located outside of urban areas, in close proximity to low-income communities. Although recycling can not be regarded as a solution in itself, while rethinking and redesigning industrial and consumption patterns, the Solid Waste Management Programme is helping to reduce the impact of waste and lead to revised city-level resource management strategies.
Employing 130 women in the Cape Metro (who earn between R300 and R3000 per month), this programme has become an avenue for the poor to reclaim the rights to their cities, creating environmentally just solutions to the ever-increasing problem of solid waste management. Instead of remaining informal and voiceless, these women are actively promoting healthy alternatives to landfills and other typical waste management strategies. The Solid Waste Management Programme respects recycling as a resource – a resource that can feed families, and cultivate safe, healthy communities. 
PROJECTED OUTCOMES

Government Engagement:

• Strengthen voice of the poor: The Solid Waste Management Programme has engaged with the City of Cape Town metropolitan government – negotiating with officials to partner with organised communities in order to create environmentally-sound, pro-poor solutions to waste management.
• Increased equality in engagement: This project aims to create space for the poor to discuss and debate waste management strategies with government on an equal platform. As solid waste collectors offer a service that is unique and necessary for the health of the community, they have the capacity to relate to the authorities as essential service providers.

Project Expansion:

• Creation of a Reproducible Model: The Solid Waste Management Programme is fully reproducible throughout urban areas in South Africa – with additional funding, we will facilitate learning exchanges between interested savings groups to grow and expand production to other regions with similar economic challenges. Most recently, we met with savings group members from Joe Slovo in Port Elizabeth who were interested in establishing a recycling project.