Giving Joburg a good scrub Pikitup, the city's environmental and waste management company, is orchestrating the multi-pronged campaign Read more Seeking the cleanest, Greenest Schools Pikitup is running a competition to raise awareness of recycling and other environmental issues in Joburg schools. Read more Cheers to recycled beer bottles SA Breweries offer an unusual service at the Summit - drink a beer, then have the bottled shaped into a designer glass Read more Recycling attitudes at Summit A major marketing blitz to persuade Jo'burg residents to change their attitude to recycling Read more

We recycled the summit, say Pikitup September 6, 2002 By Mandisi Majavu THE World Summit's tens of thousands of delegates left tons of waste - and Johannesburg's waste management company Pikitup had to deal with it in an environmentally friendly way. Since rationale of the summit was to reduce damage to the environment and encourage sustainable development, the fate of its waste was important. To deal with the waste generated by the summit's more than 50 000 delegates, a range of multi-bin recycling stations were created, designed to make it easier to separate and recycle waste products. About 80 percent of the waste collected at the five main summit venues has been recycled, and 20 percent taken to a landfill waste-dumping site. There, says Pikitup's Christa Venter, it will be buried. "The 20 percent waste that was disposed of was mostly food," says Venter. Some of it was taken to pig farms. Out of the 331 tonnes of waste collected at the summit between August 17 and September 4, various organisations dealt with elements of the garbage. Paper manufacturers Mondi and Sappi took the paper waste for recycling, and Coca-Cola took back their own plastic waste. "Environglass, the glass-recycling company, took the glass waste and Collect-a-Can, the can recycling company, took the metal waste," Christa Venter says. Before the summit began, various operational and contingency plans were implemented to handle the extra waste load. An additional 420 staff members were hired and trained by Pikitup. All their vehicles were on call for waste disposal, with mechanics available for quick repairs if necessary, and a 24-hour waste service was provided at selected depots. So what happens to the extra staff, now that the summit has come to a close? "They are encouraged to start their own waste-collection businesses," says Christa Venter. "That is, to collect waste and sell it to waste-recycling organisations. They are well equipped in this regard - their training entailed waste-recycling, and they received not only training but first-hand experience at the summit." As for the 1 240 extra garbage bins made especially for use at the summit, they will be used in future for other large events, such as World Cup Cricket next year. "Also, in the future," says Christa Venter, "we plan to launch a public-awareness campaign to encourage people to sift waste when dumping it. At the summit, we had to have monitors who made sure people separated waste when dumping it in the garbage bins." It was a considerable public educational experience for everyone, she says. Venter says that to encourage people to separate waste Pikitup plans to provide garbage bags to the public, something that is going to need a sponsor to achieve. This is still being discussed and a lot of planning is going on, she says. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400