AFRICANUS Vol 30 No 2 ISSN 0304-615X - University of South Africa

their head. Three women sold their cardboard or paper to an agent with a motor
vehicle who called on them on a daily basis in the Warwick Triangle. These
women would therefore have to transport some of their recyclables to the
market area, several kilometres from Glenwood. Interestingly, while two males
also collected in the market area and four others in the CBD, none used the
same pick-up facilities indicated by the women. Instead, they chose to take their
goods to one of the Congella agents. Three of these males owned trolleys, and
another borrowed one. Similarly, the single female collector who owned a
trolley, and who also collected in the Warwick Avenue area, where the pick-up
service existed, chose to sell her commodities in Congella. The agent who runs
the small buyback centre in Williams Road, to whom most collectors sold their
cardboard at the time of the interviews, said that he was paying 8±10c more per
kilogram than other agents. This higher price was sufficient to warrant collectors
travelling the extra distance to hawk their cardboard. At least seventeen collectors
(85%) traded their commodities in Congella.
Table 4 Comparison of earnings, number of days spent collecting and
recyclable items recovered by collectors with and without access
to trolleys
Collectors Days per week Areas of collection* Monthly
(n = 20) collecting (maximum = 2) earnings
With trolleys 4.89 ‹ 2.03 67% in 1 area R371.11 ‹ 275.52
(n =9)
Without trolleys 6.0 ‹ 1.0 73% in 2 areas R342 ‹ 176.94
(n = 11)
*Glenwood/Berea + elsewhere
Materials collected
Of a possible seven recyclable items that could be recovered (cardboard,
newspaper, other paper, cans, glass, plastic, scrap metal), the highest number
collected was four (table 5). All collected cardboard, with fewer than half collecting
other forms of paper (figure 3). Seven (35%) collected only cardboard.
The women generally collected all forms of paper, with none collecting any
other commodity. Scrap metal was the next most frequently collected (6 males)
commodity, followed by cans. Five scrap metal collectors owned trolleys, which
obviously facilitated transport to the merchants in Congella. When asked where
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