Solid Waste Management: A Theoretical View
2.2 Types of solid waste
2.3.3 Disposa l methods
2.4.2.5 Environmental management status
impossible to enforce the acts passed, and also the administration of the strategies from other countries can a burden to the country. This is because the definition of waste in South Africa for the purpose of management excludes the radioactive, mine waste, and power plant waste. (World Bank, 1999)
technical and scientific," (Environmental Management Policy, 1999). At the end of the day it's the responsibility of the government and environmental managers to make sure that all this is changing with an aim to make people participate in environmental management.
2.4.2.5.3 Pollution and waste
Most waste in South Africa is situated on land and water affecting the lives of the people who happen to be exposed to this waste. Lack of control on waste generation and disposal costs makes the situation even worse. In the long run the poorer communities are the ones who suffer since they are usually situated next to landfills.
For the waste reduction to be effective and for producers to have enthusiasm to minimize there should be incentives. The available strategies are some public and commercial recycling initiatives. Waste that can be recycled includes glass, paper, metal, plastic and oil; but there is no place in the government policy where people are systematically encouraged to minimize, reuse and recycle waste. Therefore this goes down even to the local authorities that don't motivate people to engage III recycling initiatives. (EMP, 1999)
In South Africa the collection of solid waste is the responsibility of the local authorities that are the providers of services in cities. Local authorities sometimes give the task to the contract to the private sectors. Waste is collected using the curb side, door-to-door, communal collection point and block collection methods. The first two methods use higher level of services and no or less household participation. The communal and block collection methods require households to locate waste containers in the collection point. Solid waste is collected of appointed days and there are specified areas where containers need to be placed. Intensive waste collection methods include both primary and secondary collection. In the secondary collection the equipments are used to collect waste while in the primary
collection the communities take responsibility for the collection process (Macozoma, 1999)
In about "95% of South Africa's waste is disposed on land," (Macozoma, 1999), and this is done using sanitary landfills. Some of the landfills in SA are illegal and uncontrolled so some thing need to be done to change this situation, whereby this landfills be or get them to comply with the set rules. At the same time collectors should be given the methods they have to use for the disposal not just anyone that they like (Macozoma, 1999). In the Cape Metropolitan Areas between 738 183 tla and 1 million tla estimated to be produced per year, which is disposed on six landfills. These landfills are used to dispose both domestic and commercial waste with two of them based on sandy soils increasing the risk of groundwater pollution from leachates (www.cmc.gov.za).
Macozoma (1999) did a study in South Africa based on solid waste management and found that developing countries have serious problems when it comes to solid waste.
That includes "uncontrolled dumping in green areas e.g. burrow pits, lack of practice of proper landfilling procedures e.g. covering with backfill after dumping, no compliance with landfilling regulations, lack law enforcement in solid waste practice, and uill1ecessary disposal of recoverable material," (Macozoma, 1999)
2.4.3 Local
The population in the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA) has different impacts on the natural enviromnent due to the need of goods and services such as water, housing, electricity, waste collection services and many more. The increase in population in the city increases pressures on the environment. In brief it is clear that population needs are associated with enviromnental impact. Usually the infonnal and fom1al settlements are developed on areas that are valuable and can be used for recreational
activities. Economic activities, and transportation can result in air, water, land and nOise pollution and also the destruction of natural habits.
(www.durbansolidwaste.org.za)
The DMA produces over 1.8 million tones of waste per year and lA million of this waste is disposed off in landfill sites, and the rest is disposed through marine pipes.
The richer communities generate more waste compared to poor communities. In formal communities each person generate an average of 540 kilograms a year compared to 40 kilograms on formal communities. Affluent communities usually generate recyclable materials such as glass, plastic, and paper while poor communities generate high quantity of unrefined material.
(www.durbansolidwaste.org.za)
Responsibilities of Durban Solid Waste (DSW) are as follows: plan, provide and operate waste disposal facilities; collect, transport and dispose all these waste generated in DMA, and provide streets cleaning service and manage illegal dumping;
organize community education campaign focusing on recycling and waste minimization; and encourage waste diversion and source separation to customers.
DSW operates three approved landfill sites situated in Bisasar road, Mariannhill and La Mercy. There are nine (9) garden waste sites situated in north and south central regions of Durban, and huge household items like old fridge, washing machines etc are disposed in these sites. These garden waste sites are situated in the following areas: Durban NOIih, Chatsworth (2), Bluff (2), Montclair, Phoenix, and Redhill.
(www.durbansolidwastc.org.za)
The success of waste management can come to existence only if the Integrated Waste Management (lWM) be introduced and this can be done through the triple R's (reduction, reuse and recycling). Reduction (avoid producing waste); reuse (reuse
material instead of throwing them away, e.g plastic containers can be used to store food) and recycling (return items like glass, paper, cans, plastics, cardboard and many more are collection after use to be recycled) are the approaches that can be used to deal with waste. (www.durbansolidwaste.org.za). Access for information and education on the impact of human activities on the environment are essential factors in including the interested and affected parties in good solid waste management.