Residents of Manor House in Durban, South Africa, have banded together to help a group of registered waste pickers by filtering their own waste – keeping a separate allotment of recyclable waste for the waste pickers to collect when they pass by. Members of the South African Waste Pickers Association (SAWPA) are known to travel through the Manor Gardens area on foot in search of recyclables.

They play a key role in environment justice and mitigating climate change by collecting and selling waste as a livelihood strategy. They divert materials such as plastic, cardboard, paper and metals away from waste dumps and recycle them – thereby reducing GHG emissions from waste dumpsites and reducing reliability on virgin material.

https://wastepickers.org.za/about/

Manor Gardens is a suburb neighbouring a township called Mayville. Due to the income disparity between the two areas, residents of Mayville often visit the surrounding areas in search of employment and donations. By assisting the waste-pickers, these residents help curb the socio-economic ills of crime, poverty and unemployment.

We applaud the residents of this community for engaging in pro-active means of communication with their neighbours. We can only hope that more communities see the importance of helping each other as opposed to living in privileged bubbles. A small gesture can go a long way in improving the lives of others.