Solid Waste Management: A Theoretical View
2.2 Types of solid waste
2.3.3 Disposa l methods
2.4.2.4 Legislation and enforcement in South Africa
In the enforcement of the legislation the government has different roles to play, such as making sure that the different roles at different levels of government are made clear so that there won't be any miscommunication. This helps to reduce the possibility of conflicts and competition instead to move towards the integrated and coordinated environmental function in all spheres. Institutions have different views on the roles and responsibilities of the local authorities as well as the provincial and national government based on the environmental issues.
Institute of Waste Management saw that there was a need to readdress issues related to industry in the legislation with more focus on hazardous waste. Increase in development demands crucial consideration when a landfill sites is selected since these areas have a detrimental effect on the lives of people residing in close proximity to site. Therefore due to the increase in waste industries are encouraged to reuse and recycle their production instead of dumping illegally. Although one percent of waste in South Africa is hazardous there are other tones not counted and are illegally disposed, causing environmental problem. This poses the greater challenge to the departments, mostly Department of Environmental Affair and Tourism, to follow all the stated rules from the constitution in focusing on the environment (World Bank and Local Agenda21, 2002).
The legislations in SA are only measures that can be used to address the problem of solid waste that increase daily. The stakeholders and the role players that are involved in solid waste management include industries, retailers, unions, NGO's, media, and consumers. When SA entered in the global economy there was more demand for the government and the industries to look at solid waste management differently with an aim to bring about change in its handling. Industries started to comply with the governmental and national regulations mostly resulted with the pressure from stakeholders.
In looking at all waste related issues the government has to focus on what people need and make sure that they have enough access to the information needed by the communities. This also transpired in the Constitution, since Chapter 2 section 32 (1 b) states "everyone has a right to access any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any right" (Constitution, 1996). Unless people have enough information on what they are supposed to do in order to protect the environment there won't be any change in the environment. At the same time it cannot be easy to enforce legislations on people who don't know what is expected of them.
For sustainable development to be successful globally the provincial, national and local levels need to be considered. At a local level this can be achieved by focusing on the Local Agenda 21 (LA21). Based on the LA 21 little has been done in the past in dealing with waste management in an acceptable and environmentally sound approach. This might be due to the fact that there are regulations, legislation, measures and incentives that are implemented to encourage minimization/reduction, recycling/reuse and incineration of waste. Industries and poor people trying to eam a living out of recycling drive the existing recycling schemes, therefore due to the lack of reduce and recycling projects waste stream is very high. For example according to
the 1991 estimates SA's total waste stream was 460 million tones with 419 millions tones from industries and mining. The considerable regulations like ECA, W A, HA, and HSA are the ones that are used for the management of waste in different sectors. (www.easd.org.za)
Industries are reactive rather than being active in response to the environmental law, which does not provide long-term environmental planning. Absence of legal guidelines creates conflict between communities that are affected and industries and the developers. What is common is that the environmental laws do exist but lack enforcement and effective administration and management of environmental quality.
(www.easd.org.za)
It's the responsibility of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to formulate general environmental policies and coordinate the administration and application of those policies. Other departments like Department of Water Affairs and Forest, Transport, Mineral and Energy are being involved since they are all interested on the well being of the environment. The powers to administer legislations and implement environmental laws fall under authorities of central government, and provinces. At the same time it's the responsibility of the government to take legislative steps to protect environment and make sure that those steps do not clash with other rights. For example, if the company disturbs a person's health, the affected should seek relief provided for in the Bill of Rights, then make sure that the company's rights are not infringed (World Bank, 1999).
The act passed by the government in any country is supposed to be supported by the by-laws from the local and provincial authority. In South Africa the legislation passed were incomplete up until 1980's and this means that although acts exist in the country it was not easy to apply them. Lack of knowledge and power made it
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)