City absent from waste agreement

Avoids pledge by 23 international cities to help cut waste generation

CAPE Town’s signature was notably absent from a recent international agreement aiming to reduce global waste, despite growing concerns that the city is running out of landfill space. The agreement, made between 23 of the C40 Cities Group, of which Cape Town is part, was made ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco next month.

Each signatory city has pledged to cut the amount of waste generated by each citizen by 15% by 2030, reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and incineration by 50% and increase the diversion rate away from landfill and incineration to 70% by 2030.

In doing so it is expected 87 million tons of waste will be saved by 2030.

News that Cape Town has failed to join cities such as London and New York City in signing this agreement comes shortly after the Cape Chambers of Commerce and Industry claimed that the city’s landfill sites have “less than a year of useful life” left.

In a recent media release, the president of the Chamber, Janine Myburgh, said: “It is a crisis that should not exist because it was entirely predictable and plans should have been made.”

She said a major factor behind the problem was the lack of emphasis placed on recycling within the city, suggesting that Cape Town’s wastefulness was disregarding viable business ventures.

“The Chamber recently entertained a German trade delegation and one of the members told us he had built a substantial business collecting and recycling old oil. We are dumping a good business opportunity into a landfill site,” said Myburgh.

Explaining why Cape Town had yet to sign the agreement, Zara Nicholson, spokesperson for the executive mayor, said the agreement was only recently received by the City, adding that the documents were being considered by the Solid Waste Management team before a decision is made.

“The City has signed up to numerous other C40 commitments, including the Deadline 2020 Climate Action Plan Programme which commits us to carbon neutrality by 2050, the FossilFree-Streets declaration, and the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment to achieve an equitable low carbon transformation,” said Nicholson.

“This demonstrates the City’s commitment to driving transformative climate action.”

Nicholson also highlighted the City’s proactive approach to waste management, mentioning Cape Town’s establishment of materials recovery facilities to divert recyclable materials away from waste streams, and recent innovation to allow the harvesting of landfill gas.