Johannesburg: Reclaimers – commonly known as waste pickers – the unsung heroes in the South African waste management story – are demanding urgent action and to be heard by waste management stakeholders, local, regional and national governments, as well as ordinary citizens.
At the heart of ARO’s demands are:
- payment of the service fee by producer responsibility organisations (PROs);
- a review of the 15c levy to increase it to a just rate; and
- enforcement of the law by The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).
On Sunday, Sunday 29, the Devi Show on etv and eNCA delved deep into some issues that waste pickers are coming up against as they provide an integral service has a positive spin-off environmentally, socially and economically in South Africa. This in an effort to hold those in positions of power who are meant to empower reclaimers to account.
Appearing on the show, the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), a membership-based democratic organisation of reclaimers working with reclaimers in residential and commercial areas, and landfills, sought to highlight the primary concerns of waste pickers. Waste pickers are a common sight in many residential and commercial areas around South Africa.
However, many stakeholders aren’t aware of the crucial role we play in South Africa’s waste management programme. ARO’s work involves not just collecting, transporting, sorting and selling recyclables, but also advocating for waste pickers who are often harassed and underpaid in spite of them doing the work many South African citizens and industries shun. Without us, the industry would not be able to function.
EPR – righting historical wrongs
Two-and-a-half years ago South Africa signed the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) agreement. This is a policy that enlists producers to be responsible for their products along the entire lifecycle of these products, including at the post-consumer or waste management stage. Companies using any form of packaging are bound by this agreement to retrieve their post-consumption waste in an effort to encourage recycling.
ARO was instrumental in fighting for the recognition of waste pickers during negotiations over this agreement. Arguing that waste pickers are an invisible part of the waste management system yet at the same time providing important recycling services for companies, ARO fought for waste pickers to be paid for the work they do.
Waste pickers make sure plastic and other waste goes back into the value chain, and reduce the amount of waste actually sent to landfills. By sorting and collecting waste that companies should be doing in terms of the EPR, waste pickers provide an important service to these companies, which would otherwise come at a high cost to the companies themselves. But for decades, we have done this work for free.
The SAWPRS system – an attempt to formalise the informal
In a drive to formalise the waste picking sector, the South African Wastepicker Registration System (SAWPRS) was set up to register waste pickers around the country.
A total of 80,000 waste pickers have been registered on SAWPRS since 2022.
The database is intended to store the information of every person who is an informal worker working in the sector, allowing government and other stakeholders easy access to who they are, where they’re located, etc. All waste pickers are encouraged to register, and they receive a membership number and card, which they use to identify themselves within the waste management ecosystem.
The SAWPRS is also meant to assist stakeholders and government in planning for the future.
According to legislation waste pickers registered on the database are meant to be paid a service fee by companies whose products generate recyclable waste.
PROs, represented by the PRO Alliance together with the DFFE, are meant to input this information into their own databases, and then identify registered waste pickers when they sell their material at buy-back centres around the country .
Paying the service fee
In a major victory for reclaimers, the 2021 Amendments require the PROs to pay reclaimers who are registered on the South Africa Waste Picker Registration System (SAWPRS) a service fee of 15c/kg on top of what we earn from selling recyclables. This would make South Africa a world leader in a just transition to a circular economy. But industry non-compliance makes this meaningless.
Three years of non-compliance
For the past three years, we have had regular meetings with the PRO Alliance and have made concrete proposals on what PROs need to do to ensure that they can pay the more than 8000 reclaimers who are already registered on the SAWPRS.
To date, PROs have been receiving the EPR payments from companies, but only a handful of PROs are paying it forward to waste pickers themselves. The PRO Alliance is instead unilaterally undermining a universally agreed upon policy and system – in the process illegally compromising the welfare of reclaimers.
ARO calls for urgent action in fight for justice for reclaimers
ARO has taken up the fight to ensure waste pickers are in fact paid for their work. While the struggle for sustainability and justice entails a myriad factors, as ARO we demand that:
- PROs immediately take concrete steps to make service fee payments to reclaimers as envisaged by the national legislation.
- The PRO Alliance should act in accordance with the law and be transparent by sharing their budgets for waste picker registration, payment, and integration.
- PROs acknowledge that the 15c/kg fee is morally reprehensible and economically irresponsible and is akin to a slave wage.
- PROs should enter into urgent negotiations together with all relevant stakeholders (including ARO and the South African Waste Picker Association (SAWPA) to establish a just service fee.
- The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) should exercise its mandate by forcing errant and non-compliant PROs to urgently comply with the law. Failure to comply should lead to prosecution and imposition of penalties.
#JusticeForReclaimers #ModernDaySlavery #UnseenLabour
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To view the Devi Show “Wastepickers Treated Like Dirt” episode on etv and eNCA you can click HERE
