PikituP

COMPANY PROFILE

2013

turning yourtrash into treasure

Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest City and a centre of cultural and economic excellence, but with over three million people calling the vibrant metropolis home, more and more waste is being produced with little or no space for it to be disposed.

Historically, landfill sites have been the most common methods of organized waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world, but as a global community we are running out of landfill space, and more emphasis is being put on other forms of waste management.

The organisation at the forefront of the waste management movement in Johannesburg is Pikitup, South Africa’s leading integrated waste management company, and with a staff complement of over 4000, the biggest waste management company across the entire continent.

Founded in January 2001 with the City of Johannesburg as its sole shareholder, Pikitup’s mission

is to support the national vision of ‘Zero waste to landfills by 2022’ whilst extracting maximum value from the waste stream; an enormous task for a City that generates a total of 1.6 million tons of waste per annum.

Apart from collecting and disposing of the domestic refuse generated by city residents, Pikitup also offers commercial services to some 17,000 businesses in the city and litter picks and sweeps approximately 9000 kilometres of streets within Johannesburg’s eleven regions.

Desiree Ntshingila, Pikitups’s Head of Communications Management, recently joined the organisation as part of a new executive team selected to tackle some of the company’s servicing issues, “Pikitup have recently acquired a new executive team so we’re all fairly new. We’ve all been bought in, including our MD who arrived last October, to implement a more aggressive strategy, create efficiency and ensure that Pikitup becomes the brand for other entities to look up to” she says.

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turning your trash into treasureEditorial - Lauren GreyProduction - John Cliff

As Africa’s largest waste management company, Pikitup is committed to achieving a 20% reduction in all general waste to landfill by 2016; IndustrySA speaks to Head of Communications Management, Desiree Ntshingila to find out more about their recycling initiatives.

Desiree is currently three weeks in to her five year contract with the company, but hopes to stay long term once it has expired, “It’s exciting times and I’m hoping I can serve my five year term and be part of this team that is going to make change.”

NEW FLEETPickitup operates from eleven depots and has a fleet of around 500 vehicles which are constantly shuttling between customers, its four landfill sites, incinerator and 42 garden refuse sites across the city.

The company has recently invested R42.9 million on a new fleet of vehicles, ensuring that its waste collection systems are constantly upgraded and modernised to help meet the growing demands of waste management in the city.

“They [the new fleet] were introduced at the start of April,” says Desiree, “we launched the first four of 32 to come into SA. We currently have an aging fleet, some have been repaired and as a result it delays the

collection of refuse at different depots within the City.”

The new fleet consists of 20 compactors and eleven street cleaning trucks, brought in to help and assist with the backlog of operations caused by the aging fleet, but also as a means of introducing new technology for collecting and picking up bins. Although some of the drivers have to be retrained to use the new machinery, Desiree says that most of them already possessed the correct skills.

“We are trying to encourage people to separate their waste in terms of paper, plastic and glass before putting them out for collection by Pikitup”

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MAY 13 PAGE 3

“The drivers will have to be retrained to work the new vehicles, most of our drivers have already been trained; they are familiar with the machinery in terms of its technology and what it has to offer, and many of them have previously used advanced machinery.”

REDUCING WASTE TO LANDFILLAs the official waste management company for Johan-nesburg, Pikitup is committed to helping the City achieve a national goal of ‘Zero waste to landfill by 2022’, and whilst this is considered by some as an un-achievable goal – as some waste will always have to be disposed of at landfill sites - it nevertheless remains an ideal and focused goal.

A more realistic goal is its commitment to achieving a 20% reduction in Johannesburg’s general waste to landfill by 2016, which the company intends to achieve through various waste minimisation and recycling initiatives, with emphasis on the separation of recyclable waste at source.

“Our targets are very realistic,” explains Desiree, “it is a mandate set by the Mayor of the City to say that we need to reach those levels.” One of Pikitup’s main initiatives in order to reach its targets is to establish separation-at-source programmes at all of its depot regions, “we’re trying to educate communities, stakeholders and businesses at large on how to do separation at source, an initiative which encourages people to separate their waste in terms of paper, plastic and glass before putting them out for collection by

Pikitup” explains Desiree.The separation-at-source programme will be

rolled-out across the City over a four year period, and will focus on job creation and community participation. Pikitup has proposed the construction of community-based recycling facilities and the use of garden sites as sorting facilities.

In order to spread the word about the separation-at-source initiative, Pikitup have trained door-to-door field workers, otherwise known as the Treasure Team, who have been tasked with visiting households in Zondi, Diepsloot, Ivory Park and Orange Farm – the four areas targeted for the 2012/13 financial year- to explain the process and hand out supporting literature.

In order for residents to separate their trash efficiently, Pikitup have introduced three separate containers; a beige hessian bag for paper, a clear plastic bag for plastic and other recyclable material and a 240 litre wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste.

In addition to the separation-at-source programme, Pikitup is focusing on six additional areas in the execution of its waste minimisation and recycling mandate. These include the composting of organic waste disposed of at garden sites, establishing and/or supporting builder’s rubble crushing plants in partnership with the private sector, upgrading of garden sites to receive recyclable waste, transforming ten garden sites into centres of excellence, educating communities in good waste management practices and supporting legitimate recycling initiatives.

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“The employee service awards are just one of the initiatives we will be embarking on as a business to keep our employees motivated and to recognise their contribution to the industry”

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TRASH TO TREASUREPikitup’s separation-at-source initiative has been dubbed the ‘Trash to Treasure’ campaign, as some of the recyclable waste can be converted into cash, “some of it can then be converted from trash to cash, and through that initiative our landfills won’t have as much waste” explains Desiree.

Trash can be converted at a select few of Pikitup’s depots which house Buy-Back centres, “we do not have Buy-Back centres at all of our depots, but those that do mean that people can bring their trash and sell it back to us” explains Desiree.

Since its inception in October 2012, Pikitup’s Trash to Treasure project has assisted residents to accumulate 1107 tons of recyclable refuse and created more than 100 new permanent jobs in Soweto and Diepsloot alone, through the Buy-Back Centres which are managed by independent Cooperatives.

“We’ve partnered with other corporations in the can industry and the glass industry to ensure they come and receive some of this waste, and as a result this reduces the amount of waste going to landfill” she says.

However, Pikitup acknowledges the reality that not all waste can be recycled and landfill sites will still be necessary until other ways of disposing waste have been found, “currently there are other strategies in trying to find additional land for landfills, but we will ensure as a business that we minimise the amount of waste going to landfill, through our Trash to Treasure and separation-at-source initiatives.”

EMPLOYEE SERVICE AWARDSSince its inception in 2001, Pikitup has grown into the largest waste management company in Africa with over 4000 employees, but Desiree says that acknowledging each and every member of staff for their contribution to the industry is high on the company’s agenda.

“Recently we had service awards for some of our members; the awards were an internal recognition of the services that some of our employees have given us. We had around 150 employees that were being recognised and awarded for giving the company long service; we had four categories, those who had served the business for 12 years, 18, 24 and 30 years.”

Although the business was established in 2001, Pikitup recognised the contribution of those employees who worked in different municipalities before Pikitup was formed, hence the 18, 24 and 30 year achievement awards, “some of those employees worked in different municipalities before Pikitup was formed, so we’re also

recognising them for their services to other state-owned companies and the City itself” she says.

“The employee service awards are just one of the initiatives we will be embarking on as a business to keep our employees motivated and to recognise their contribution to the industry; we want to encourage new employees and show them that we are a business that values its workforce. We just wanted to thank them, to award them and to boost morale, to say you make Pikitup what it is.”

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FUTURE PLANSAlthough Pikitup’s present services are restricted to the geographical area of the City of Johannesburg, the company intends to grow in terms of service and efficiency, “our strategy is not to grow or increase in size, but in terms of service delivery, in ensuring we are efficient,” explains Desiree.

“We have an up-coming waste summit on May 15th and 16th; we are going to be sharing strategies with other stakeholders on what’s been done in the private sector, globally, locally and continentally. We will also be sharing and unpacking our mandate, to see the types of partnerships we can have, so we’re constantly evolving as a business and looking to try out other things that are available.”

The waste summit will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre between 8am and 4pm, with Wednesday’s discussion focussing on recycling and Thursday’s exploring waste treatment technology..

PIkItuP

E-Square Engineering (Pty) Ltd is an Engineering firm which has been offering its valued Clients engineering solutions and adaptable technologies in the following fields of Engineering for the past 10 years:

Civil Engineering•Water and waste water

collection, treatment, storage and distribution systems

• Roads infrastructure and stormwater management

•Waste and Landfill sites management

Structural Engineering•Commercial and Industrial

structures

• Residential and Public Facilities structures

• Bridges

Electrical Engineering• Power transmission and

distribution solutions

• Telecommunications

• Building services

Project Management• Project and development

management

• Project programming and financial packaging

E-Square Engineering’s ethos is to provide solutions which unlock potential within its Stakeholders.

P.O. Box 2682Northriding 2162

Email: info@esquareeng.comJOHANNESBURG

No 95 First RoadFarmall, Kya Sands, 1747Tel: (011) 875 9906/7/8

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No 23 Bhimy Damanc StreetMiddelburg, 1055

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Fax. (018) 462 2884

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www.pikitup.co.za