Johannesburg

Johannesburg was founded in 1884 after the discovery of gold, and has since boomed, becoming the largest city in South Africa, and the biggest in the world not set on water, be it sea, lake or river. The area around Johannesburg has been inhabited since before the emergence of modern humans. Indeed, the city is just 25km from the ‘Cradle of Humankind’ UNESCO World Heritage Site, a site where large numbers of proto-human remains have been fossilised in caves.

Elevated 1,753 metres above sea level, Johannesburg is the unofficial economic capital of South Africa—which happens to be a country without a legally designated capital.  It remains a diverse place, where much wealth and poverty sit side by side, has a bustling multiculturalism, long-term settlers and migrants. Johannesburg also hosts numerous educational centres, including several universities and private collages, large sporting venues, and other cultural centres.

www.joburg.org.za

Separation@Source

Summary

The S@S programme aims to reduce waste to landfills and establish a recycling economy with citizen support and participation. The key focus of this initiative is to contribute towards the city of Johannesburg’s waste minimization plan and in particular the goal of diverting 93% of waste away from landfills by 2040. The municipality supports households and businesses to separate recyclables from non-recyclable waste, encouraging a community driven approach to waste management, waste prevention and waste minimisation. This is helping to promote a clean, conscientious and healthy city where land is freed up for important things such as housing and agriculture, not landfill. The city encourages residents to try not to use more than they need to and save energy through re-using and recycling materials to make new items instead of depleting natural resources.

Background and Objectives

The city of Johannesburg is among the fastest growing cities in South Africa with a population of approximately 5 million plus residents. Johannesburg, due to its vibrant economic activity, is projected to continue to grow to a population of about 7 million residents by 2040. This could translate to 3.1 million tons of waste managed by Pikitup (the City’s waste utility company) by 2040. The City’s current landfills, on the other hand, are experiencing a rapid depletion of landfill airspace and should the conventional manner of managing waste, i.e. disposal, continue, Pikitup will run out of landfill airspace by 2023.

In line with national policy, the city administration has called for increased diversion of waste away from landfills towards re-use, recycling and recovery. This is in line with national policy. In order to achieve this, the National Waste Management Strategy sets targets for metros, secondary cities and large towns to implement Separation at Source programmes in which waste generators (e.g. households and businesses) separate recyclables from non-recyclable waste. The city of Johannesburg is one of the forerunners who has rolled out the Separation at Source programme through its municipal owned entity Pikitup Johannesburg (SOC) Ltd.

The key objectives of the Separation at Source programme are as follows:

• 50 000 tons of dry recyclables (S@S) to be diverted from landfill sites in 2018/19.
• Implementing waste hierarchy (from waste avoidance and reduction, to re-use, recycle, recovery, and lastly treatment and disposal).
• Green House Gas reduction.
• Conserve natural resources by re-using the waste for the manufacture of new items instead of using natural resources all the time.
• Save landfill airspace so that our landfill sites can last for longer and not need additional land which we can be used for other purposes e.g. agriculture, housing etc.
• Save energy. The production of some products from recycled materials uses far less energy than the production of the same product from raw materials.
• Job creation, skill development and poverty alleviation.

Implementation

The Separation at Source programme was rolled out on a voluntary basis from 2009 in some areas of the city and is mandatory in parts of the city as of 1^st July 2018. Separation at Source is made possible by the cooperation of residents who separate the waste at household level and take out the bin containing the waste residual (non-recyclable waste) and the recycling bags with recyclable waste. Recyclables are collected by Pikitup at the kerbside by separate trucks on the same day as the normal collections of the residual waste. Pikitup also has 42 operating garden refuse transfer sites at which it provides containers for the disposal of light garden waste and recyclable material.

In addition to kerbside recycling Johannesburg has developed a network of drop-off facilities across the city so that communities can drop-off their household generated dry recyclables for the purpose of re-use, recycling or further processing. The recyclables are then sorted on site by small, medium and micro-sized enterprises who then sell them for their own financial gain.

Currently there are two types of operational models that are utilized for dry recyclable waste collection from residents, namely traditional and private sector models.  The traditional mode is community based and consists of a number of co-operatives that offer a dry recyclables collection and sorting service to residents with assistance from Pikitup. Pikitup facilitates the cooperative Separation at Source model through the supply of fleet, bags and other supporting infrastructure such as sorting areas.  Pikitup has established 37 co-operatives contributing towards innovative ways to create value from waste.

The private sector model consists of service providers who deliver the dry recyclables collection service to residents on behalf of Pikitup. In this model the service providers procure bags, deliver to and collect bags from residents and operate their own sorting facilities. In return, Pikitup pays for this service. Both models consist of an education and awareness programme that is rolled out within the serviced communities.

In an effort to maximize green waste diversions away from landfills, household can drop-off garden waste at 42 operating sites. Pikitup chips and shreds the clean green waste which is collected at no charge by the service provider and hauled to their composting facility for composting purposes or further processing.

Financing and Resources

Pikitup has received support from various stakeholders and Johannesburg entities. Below is a list of some of the resources that have been provided by external parties.

• The city of Johannesburg harnessed the capacity and the energy that exists within the private sector and commenced collaboration with private operators in 2017/18 to expand the roll-out of the programme to more areas.
• Corporations in the private sector have helped to support and empower small, micro, medium enterprises (SMEs) entering the recycling sector through financial and infrastructure donations.
• Industry recycling groups have been supportive in providing relevant recycling training to community businesses (i.e. business management, operations management, recycling techniques).
• Community co-operatives offer recyclable collection and sorting service to residents with assistance from the city’s waste management entity, Pikitup.
• The Waste Picker Forum promotes engagement between the city and waste pickers on their integration into the waste value chain.

www.pikitup.co.za

 

    

City Profile

Size and population development

Johannesburg has roughly doubled in size since the end of apartheid in 1994, with a population of around 5.5 million people in 2018. In addition to the city proper, the larger metropolitan area is home to 9.6 million people, taking up most of Gauteng province. The city itself is set to expand by another two million people by 2035.

Population composition

Of those living within the Johannesburg’s city boundaries, they are 64% black, 14% white, 14% coloured and 7% Asian. The segregation policies of apartheid led to different suburbs, like Soweto and Lenasia, having very different composures. The most spoken first language is English, at 31%, followed by Zulu with around 20%. Johannesburg sports a young population, with around 42% of people being under the age of twenty-four, and only 6% over sixty. There are strong rich/poor divides, following the deep socio-economic divides from the history of colonialism and apartheid, high levels of unemployment and many people living in settlements that lack central municipal services.

Main industries/business

Johannesburg is estimated to possess the largest economy of any city in sub-Saharan Africa. It is home to Africa’s largest stock exchange, the headquarters for many mining companies, financial institutions and other multinationals active in Africa. This gives the city a thriving services industry, with banking, IT, telecom, media and consumer retail sectors. Johannesburg also sports the continents biggest and busiest airport. Mining was of the greatest importance to the city, yet it has gradual declined owing to limited resources as well as the growth of other industries, notably manufacturing, with heavy industries like steel and cement operating. Johannesburg houses the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Sources for city budget

The city draws it budget from pay-as-you-earn income taxes, and additional taxes on capital gains, value added, and property taxes, such as transfer, stamp and estate duty.

Political structure

After numerous reorganizations, most recently in 2006, Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality governs the city via a council-mayor system. This features a separation between the legislative and executive bodies, plus an administrative arm, with the model mirroring the national and provincial governments. The city is divided into seven regions, labelled A to G, each composed of various suburbs. Above them is the executive branch, the Mayor of Johannesburg and the highest elected position in the city. Beyond the city is the premier of Gauteng, the smallest of South Africa’s nine provinces, and then the national government. Across the 20th century, many public organisations have been reorganised to run as corporate entities with the city as a shareholder. Concepts of “efficiency maximisation” has found expression elsewhere, with the seven regions being conceived as contractors to the central government, rather than components of the core administration. Each of the seven regions is responsible for the delivery of health care, housing, social development and other such community-based services. Likewise, Johannesburg’s key utilities, such as electricity, water and waste collection, are run by registered companies along business lines, receiving their funds from directly billing the populous.

Administrative structure

Johannesburg has 270 councillors representing various political parties, who debate local government issues, ratifying or rejecting proposals. The council focuses on legislative, oversight and participatory roles, delegating its executive function to the mayor and their various mayoral committees. The executive mayor has numerous political portfolios, including: economic development, development planning, environment and infrastructure service, housing, public safety, community development, transport and health and safety.