(Picture: Councillor Cleone Vanston with members of the Waste Management Team)

The ugly mountains of rubbish that were being stored on the grounds of the old Sedgefield Recycling Centre were finally cleared by the Knysna Municipality Waste Department last week, but it seems that this wasn’t to last long as local residents have been taking their own rubbish and dropping it there, so new piles are forming.

Municipal Manager, Ombali Sebola, has now declared the site officially closed, and a visible board has been placed outside warning residents of this. He insists that the huge waste overflow at the Recycle Centre over the last few months has always been caused by private rubbish dumping, not the site being used as a holding area by the Waste Department, as many believed.

“It is imperative to highlight that the challenges at the recycling centre were caused by residents dumping domestic waste,” he said, “The permit for the centre is not for dropping off domestic waste. We kindly urge residents to retain their domestic waste at their residences. Regular refuse collection will continue as scheduled.”

Says Ward 2 Councillor Cleone Vanston “Whilst I am aware of many challenges with the removal of certain types of waste that doesn’t fit into black bags or cannot be recycled in the recycling bags, the request remains to please refrain from taking your refuse to the site.”

She informed us that people from surrounding towns and rural areas had reportedly also been bringing their waste to the site.

“All household refuse can be put in black bags and wheelie-bins, and recycling items in the clear recycling bags for collection as per the usual schedule,” she advised, “A more informative action plan for items that cannot be collected from your property needs to be formulated within the Solid Waste department in conjunction with the Municipal Manager – this will be communicated in due course.”

Residents with any queries related to refuse collection should contact the Knysna Municipality 044 302 6405 – Waste Management Department or 044 302 6500 – Sedgefield Municipal Offices
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Those interested in obtaining wheelie bins may email their request to Ramona Loxton at rloxton@knysna.gov.za.

To mitigate the potential misuse of clear bags, D&M Recycling – the recycling tender holder – will furnish residents with clear bags. The number of bags collected will correspond to the initially issued empty bags.