South Africa: The Morning Men - a Glimpse Into Waste Collectors' Lives

analysis

Each day, Cape Town collectively produces 6,000 tons of waste. Cape Town's solid-waste management system is designed to both clean the city and encourage action amongst the general public to minimise waste. But they are best known to the suburbs as those sulphurous trucks that collect our rubbish once a week.

To spend a day with these men and women is an eye-opening experience. The Woodstock depot on 25 Beach Road is buzzing by six thirty in the morning, with orange jackets darting in the sheets of rain between the trucks and grey buildings, and voices rising above the downpour to organise their near departure. Unexpected is the cleanliness of the depot - perhaps from the storming downpour, the trucks are glistening and the floating smell is only earthy, not unpleasant.

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