The City’s Urban Waste Management Directorate is currently employing EPWP recruits on temporary contract to study the volumes and composition of waste disposed in 240l wheelie bins. Data being collected during this Waste Balance Flow Project will help the City to further optimise the City’s waste collection service.
Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg and Portfolio Chairperson, Cllr Brenda Hansen, on Tuesday 26 April 2022, visited the Waste Balance Flow Project in Ndabeni to meet participants in the study and learn about the project.
This project has been running for a few months, and involves EPWP workers accompanying the refuse collection trucks, collecting data on waste volumes and composites such as paper, tins, and plastic bags (among others) over a period of 15 months, across seasons and different communities in Cape Town.
The amount and type of waste all have an impact on how frequently compactors reach capacity and must travel back to landfills. It is commonly understood that waste density/composition changes seasonally, and is influenced by different prevalent socio-economic factors in different communities.
Five EPWP graduate opportunities were created by this project that has a total budget of approximately R600 000. Experienced data analysts provided extensive training to EPWP staff to enable skills transfer and empower them through experiential learning.
‘This is part of our significant efforts that we are undertaking into ensuring that residents receive the highest level of service possible within our current resources,’ said Alderman Twigg.