Doornbach: seeds we planted years ago bear fruit today!

During 2013-2016 I coordinated the pilot project: “Design Strategies for enhancing service delivery in Solid Waste Management in Doornbach”. The project was a collaboration between the City’s Solid Waste Department, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), and residents of the Doornbach informal settlement. Professor Mugendi M’Rithaa was the project manager for CPUT.

The aim of this pilot project was to establish, through community participatory co-design approach, the effectiveness of existing services to residents of Doornbach, and to determine appropriate design strategies for enhancing service delivery in solid waste management processes.

One of the tangible results of the process was the co-design of a new waste bin prototype, tailor-designed – thanks to the community input and participation – to address the challenges of managing waste in informal settlements.
In 2016, 12 of those bins were installed in Doorbach; after testing them for a month their design was rediscussed with the local community, leading to some changes and improvements, after which the technical drawing was delivered to the City of Cape Town.

The City of Cape Town had distributed and installed 5,000 of those bins in the community of Doorbach in 2021.

In May 2022 The City’s Mayoral Committee approved the roll-out of a further 60,000 bins to various informal settlements across the city, all manufactured according to the specifications identified through the Doornbach co-design project. (Link)