The Grahamstown municipal landfill is home to a group of homeless men and women from nearby locations. Their livelihoods are dependent on the food and recyclable materials thrown away by businesses, government offices, institutions and households in and around town.
The dumpsite is on the outskirts of the Western area on the Cradock road. Plastic bags blow across the dump and across the countryside. The driveway into the dump is a dirt road surrounded by shrubs covered in dust that have grocery bags clinging onto their branches.
The area looks like a disaster. Except for a tiny security room at the gate, and a grader that occasionally levels heaps of waste, there is no municipal presence. There is no infrastructure or ablution facilities to practice basic hygiene.
The pickers, in scattered groups, search the waste for bounties, tearing bags apart in the process. They salvage anything they can - food, household goods and most importantly, recyclable materials like copper, aluminium, cardboard, plastic and glass bottles.
Young men loitering by the gate chase after vehicles entering the dumpsite, hoping to be the first to access the rubbish the cars and trucks bring in.
They say you can make R40, R50, R60, or more a day. Meat and other food from the waste is taken back home to the townships, sold or eaten. Materials are sold at the scrap yards nearby, town or location.
On a busy day there can be 200 or more people searching. Most of them come from the townships on a daily basis. About eleven or twelve pickers live at the dumpsite. They say that poverty and lack of jobs has forced them to live and search on the dumpsite. “At least there’s food at the dumpsite, unlike in the location where the cupboards are forever empty,” they said.
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