Picking at waste facilities – scavenging or entrepreneurshipPicking at waste facilities – scavenging or entrepreneurship

Abstract

Picking at landfills is a reality at most landfills in South Africa. It is often the poorest community members that resolve to picking as a way of making a living, typically under conditions that are not conducive to their health or safety. However, at a number of waste sites, these activities have been formalised and transformed into entrepreneurial small businesses. Instead of only focusing on recovery of materials with potential value to formal recyclers, entrepreneurs now find innovative ways of adding value to the waste materials, thus earning a living through business activities at these facilities. Although picking at landfills cannot be encouraged, this paper reports on a few examples of such entrepreneurial activities which are adding value to waste recovery and recycling, and creating jobs as a consequence. It further comments on potential regulatory instruments that can be employed towards the formalisation of these activities. The purpose of such a formalisation should be to support the entrepreneurial initiative and the resultant job creation opportunities, while supporting national policy initiatives put forward in the waste hierarchy.