The Heidelberg Road Solid Waste Transfer Station, in Alberton, is located just to the north of Heidelberg Road, to the east of the Newmarket Racecourse, and just to the west of the railway line.
It had been in operation for in excess of 20 years and was not operating efficiently.
The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality decided that upgrades and improvements needed to be made to it. These upgrades and improvements were intended to provide for:
- Increased throughput of municipal waste;
- Recovery of recyclable material; and
- Separation of facilities for use by the public from those provided for municipal operations.
The work to be carried out included improvements to the existing waste collection and transfer system, by means of:
- Improvements to enable the rapid discharge of municipal waste to the compaction units;
- Installation of two new compaction units, including ancillary equipment;
- Provision for the installation of a new municipal materials recovery facility;
- Construction of a new facility for the collection and transfer of garden green waste (including branches and tree stumps), delivered by the public, as well as recyclable items such as , paper, glass, cans, used oil, etc.