Waste Services Department
What we do
We are responsible for:
- basic waste management services to all residents;
- clearing illegally disposed waste;
- conserving resources and the environment;
- reducing landfill waste;
- reducing the impacts of waste on the health, well-being and environment.
A key responsibility of the City of Cape Town is to safely dispose of waste, and to ensure the general cleanliness in the city’s streets and public spaces, including beaches, rivers and canal banks. The City is also mandated to ensure and enable the prevention of waste and pollution, as well as the minimisation of waste, but this is the combined responsibility of all of us, including the private sector and residents. At a local level it is the responsibility of the City to:
- consider alternate service delivery mechanisms;
- define, design and create ways to enable cleansing, disposal, collections and waste minimisation;
- ensure all stakeholders receive efficient waste management services at an acceptable rate (tariff);
- facilitate all Waste Wise telephonic and email enquiries;
- regulate waste management services;
- set, monitor and adjust waste minimisation targets;
- standardise the extent of services.
"We will continue to strive to provide all Cape Town residents with a world-class waste service."
Rustim Keraan
Director: Waste Services
We include
Refuse collection
The City provides a weekly scheduled refuse collection service to residents and businesses. This includes collecting waste from the 240 ℓ black wheelie bins, after the property owner has applied for a wheelie bin.
The department also provides the following services:
Drop-off
We have 26 drop-off facilities that provide the opportunity to recycle, offload any non-hazardous waste that cannot be managed via the normal scheduled refuse removal service. Drop-off sites accept garden refuse, recycling, builders’ rubble, garage waste, white waste (appliances), e-waste, and oil (not all facilities). Vehicles with a maximum carrying capacity of 1.5 tonnes are allowed to enter the site a maximum of three times per day.
Disposal
We provide a waste disposal service which is managed and driven based on professional engineering standards. All disposal facilities are licensed and frequently audited, ensuring that they are legally compliant according to environmentally acceptable standards.
The service includes the general waste disposal at
transfer stations and landfill sites, as well as disposal of small quantities of household hazardous waste at
Athlone Refuse Transfer Station and
Bellville Integrated Waste Management Facility, and low hazardous waste at
Vissershok landfill site. The service also provides the drop-off facility for garage waste, garden greens and clean builders’ rubble disposal. An additional service that came online in 2018 was the Gas-to-energy project at the
Coastal Park and Bellville Landfill sites.
Cleansing
We ensure general cleanliness in the streets and public spaces of Cape Town, including beaches, rivers and canal banks. We also oversee the removal of animal carcasses on public land and roads, as well as the cleaning and collection of refuse in informal settlements. We provide waste management planning advice to all partnerships and cleansing services to special events within the city. Our other tasks are as follows:
- animal carcass collection;
- beach cleaning;
- door to door refuse collection and area cleaning in informal settlements;
- enforcing the
Integrated Waste Management By-law, 2009, and it's
2010 and
2016 amendments;
-
illegal dumping clearance;
- installing ‘no dumping’ signage on public open space Reacting to all emergency call outs for fire debris, flooding, large accidents etc.;
- litter bin provision and servicing;
- pre and post street cleaning for events;
- street cleaning in leafy and sandy areas to avoid storm water blockages and flooding;
- water tanker cleaning services.
Finance and Commercial - Revenue Management
Our services include:
- facilitating Waste Wise user email requests and enquiries regarding Solid Waste Management services;
- resolving refuse related requests.
The types of requests our Customer Related Management section receives includes:
- advice on recycling;
- illegal dumping requests;
- street sweeping;
- non-removal of refuse;
- requests for additional bins;
- requests for replacement bins when stolen, broken or damaged;
- removal of garden waste.
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