The management of South Africa’s landfills and waste pickers on them: Impacting lives and livelihoods

Figures & data

Figure 1. The dimensions of the sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF). Source: Adapted from DFID (1999) and Scoones (2009).

Table 1. Overview of the sites.

Landfill site	Estimated number of waste pickers on site on the day of the interviews	Urban or rural location	O = outsourced M = Municipality managed
ST	50	Rural	O
OU	50	Rural	O and M
BN	60	Urban	M
BS	60	Urban	M
BO	40	Rural	M
PR	200	Urban	M
BR	40	Rural	M
VR	30	Rural	M
PO	20	Rural	O
GR	20	Rural	M

Source: Research data.

Table 2. Basic facilities present at the landfill sites for the waste pickers.

Landfill site	Water	Sanitation	Shade/protection
ST	Yes	Yes	No
OU	No	No	No
BN	Yes	Yes	No
BS	Yes	Yes	No
BO	No	No	No
VR	Yes	No	Yes
PO	Yes	No	No
PR	No	No	No
BR	No	No	No
GR	Yes	Yes	Yes

Source: Research data.

Figure 2. Highest school qualifications of landfill waste pickers. Source: Research data.

LWPs, landfill waste pickers.

Table 3. Reasons for not attending school or leaving school before Gr 12.

Theme	Some comments by participants
Theme 1: Left school to support the family.	‘Parents died. Had to work for family on farm’
	‘Mother died. Father took me out of school to go work’
	‘Had to work to help struggling parents’
Theme 2: Experienced family problems	‘Family and financial problems’
	‘Circumstances in my home was the reason’
	‘Had to look after sick mother’
	‘Had a hard life. Parents never sent me to school’
Theme 3: Behavioural problems	‘I was expelled from school’
	‘I was a naughty and corrupt child in school’
	‘Started drinking and smoking at 13 years’
	‘Imprisoned for theft’
	‘Too big for my boots. Worked as bouncer at night club and got into drugs’
	‘Because of glue sniffing’
Theme 4: Gang involvement.	‘Got involved with gangs’
	‘Gangsterism in area where I lived’
Theme 5: Responsible for the livestock of the family.	‘Looking after my father’s cows – herdboy’
	‘Watching livestock’
Theme 6: Left school due to pregnancies	‘Fell pregnant while at school and had to work to care for child’
	‘I fathered a child’
Theme 7: Due to poverty could not afford school clothes, fees and books	‘Did not have shoes’
	‘My school clothes were dirty and I don’t have any other school clothes’
	‘Bunked school because I did not have shoes’
	‘Did not have money for school materials’
Theme 8: No or difficult access to schools	‘There was no access to schooling’
	‘I lived and worked on a farm. The farmer would not take us to school’
	‘Had to travel too far to school because of apartheid’
	‘Parents could not afford. Lived on farm. Had a difficult life’

Source: Research data.

Figure 3. Mean and median income for the previous, good and bad week. Source: Research data.

Table 4. Total, mean and median number of dependents (n = 331).

Dependents
	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Median	SD
Dependents	1178	0	15	4	3	2.220839
Children	764	0	12	3	2	1.668236
Children under 18	521	0	9	2	2	1.300138

Source: Research data. SD, standard deviation.

Figure 4. Ways in which landfill waste pickers help each other. Source: Research data.

Figure 5. The material recovery facility at the landfill GR site. Source: Authors.

Figure 6. Landfill waste pickers protecting themselves against the sun at the BN landfill site. Source: Authors.

Figure 7. Waste pickers and their recyclables being picked up by the truck from the Buy Back Centre (BBC). Source: Research data.

Figure 8. Happiness of the landfill waste pickers. Source: Research data.

Department of International Development (DFID), 1999. Sustainable livelihoods guidance sheets, DFID, London.

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Scoones, I, 2009. Livelihoods perspectives in rural development. Journal of Peasant Studies 36(1), 171–96. doi: 10.1080/03066150902820503

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