Pikitup in new move to clean up Jozi’s inner city

21 August 2015

 

Dozens of business owners, leaders of non-governmental organisations and Johannesburg inner city residents have signed a pledge committing themselves to contributing to the cleanliness of the Johannesburg CBD.

 

This took place during a Pikitup Inner City Waste Management breakfast dialogue at the Turbine Hall in Newtown on Thursday August 20.

 

The pledge reads: “I pledge to do my bit towards cleanliness and take my time for this. I pledge to spend 100 hours, or two hours every week, towards this. I will not litter or allow anyone to litter. I will also get 100 more people to take the pledge that I am taking.”

 

During the dialogue, Pikitup Managing Director Amanda Nair called on all stakeholders – including business owners, provincial government and City departments, tertiary institutions, South African Police Service, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, taxi associations, tenants, building owners and informal traders – to join hands in helping the entity realise its vision to be a “leading integrated waste management company in Africa and be considered among the best in the world”.

 

“We cannot do this alone. Almost every major 21st century problem we need to address has to be done through very deep multi sector partnerships in which we identify where we hold common interest and collaborate with each other to solve those social problems,” she said.

 

For its part, Pikitup is to implement several drastic measures in the Johannesburg inner city to improve waste management and deal with challenges such as maintenance of underground bins, vandalism and misuse of underground bins, tariff avoidance and inadequate bylaw enforcement of informal recycling.

 

In the short term, the entity will:

• Place open skip bins in strategic areas in the inner city;

• Appoint a service provider to repair and maintain underground bins;

• Provide taxi ranks with skips and more litter bins;

• Spread messages and posters among taxi associations and hold one-on-one discussions with taxi owners;

• Hold cleanest taxi rank competition; and

• Reclaim lanes and surrounding areas in conjunction with Region F Environmental Health Department, local traders and the community.

 

Nair urged the business community and other stakeholders to drastically reduce the use of plastic, separate waste at source and strive for a paperless office by using e-mails and other electronic modes of communication.

 

Pikitup Chairperson Dr Trish Hanekom said the entity would soon engage with unions to make the City a cleaner and better place to live in. 

Dr Karien Henrica, a 2015 Mrs South Africa finalist, asked people to spread the word in their communities, saying that would easily change their mindset about their environment.