September 22, 2011

Waste management company, Tedcor is leading the way in how business and local government can work together to supply service delivery, whilst creating employment for communities. As proof of its success, the United Nations Development Programme, included Tedcor on its website as one of the 50 best practises for pro-poor enhancement worldwide.

Since its inception in 1994, Tedcor has worked with officials in the municipalities, within the tendering process, to deliver professional and efficient waste management services.  To date, many councils have adopted the concept as standard practise for household waste collection.

There are now more than 150 community contactors from historically disadvantaged backgrounds who have acquired their own waste management businesses.  This has been achieved through the training and support of Tedcor, the banks and the equipment suppliers.

Each appointed community contractor is commissioned to collect household refuse from between 6000 and 7000 houses.  They, in turn, employ between 12 and 14 people.  These are then split up into three teams that collect the waste from door to door, sweep the streets and litter-pick the open areas – creating 2000 jobs over the past 16 years.

“Each year our community contractors are judged against a set of criteria that measures their overall performance. This includes a range of criteria such as their level of service, the care of their vehicle, record keeping and their relationship with their staff.  Currently, there are 74 community contractors in training,” says Tedcor’s chairman, John Houghton.  

“At present, 3-million homes in South Africa do not have door to door collections. By implementing Tedcor’s strategies, close on 5000 new jobs could be created with probably another 500 in service support,” he says.

The population of South Africa produces about 24-million tonnes of household waste a year - a figure that grows roughly at a rate of 6% per year.  Of this, 4-million tonnes is recyclable. Only 42% of this amount is actually recycled leaving over 2-million tonnes going to landfill.

Clearly there are job opportunities in the collection and handling of recyclable waste and  Tedcor is now poised to expand its current operations. “We have started a new division called Tedcor Zero Waste, which will address this opportunity and encourage our community contractors to be a part of reducing the amount of recyclable waste going to landfill. We shall also extend our service to shopping centres and commercial parks, making it more convenient for offices, schools and municipal offices to be part of this initiative.  Material handling centres in Wadeville have already been established to sort waste and are ready to send the recyclables back to the manufacturers,” he says.

However, the big question is what to do with the balance of the waste.  Some 20-million tonnes goes to landfill annually. For example, this equates to 5-million elephants being buried every year. The challenge is to find use for waste or at the very least to find economic ways of reducing the amount going to landfill.

Tedcor has partnered with HVC, the Alkmaar-based energy provider to municipalities and water districts in Holland, that also collects household waste, from which 170 megawatts of electricity is produced.  This is enough power to provide the energy needs of two major cities. “We shall be learning from them how to handle waste more cost effectively and productively. It is, however, an expensive operation and is only suitable for large cities. However, it may well be enough to simply incinerate the waste as a clean and economic means of disposal, which would certainly apply to some of our coastal towns where landfill sites are a considerable distance away.

“Another new division has been introduced, Tedcor Waste 2 Energy.  Together with our Holland partners, this will study waste disposal methods more appropriate to African conditions as opposed to the sophisticated plant processes of the western world,” he says.