Holiday town’s cash-for-trash plan raises a stink

SOUTH Africa has offered itself as a global rubbish dump in a controversial cash-for-trash deal with crisis-riddled Lebanon.

The deal would see at least 2.4million tons of rubbish shipped from Lebanon to South Africa over the next year. This is the first time the country is to accept international municipal waste for disposal.

The deal, brokered by Durbanbased logistics company Veriworkz Trading, would result in about 300 000 tons of waste — 52% organic, 12% plastic, 16% paper, 6% metal, 4% glass and 10% other — being dumped in South African landfill sites a month.

Umdoni municipality, on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast, would benefit from the R73-million project.

However, the national Department of Environmental Affairs said it did not support the import of waste for disposal.

Environmentalists have slated the proposal, saying it would place strain on the country’s overburdened landfill sites, and that the waste export could be in contravention of at least three international treaties.

This includes the Basel Convention, to which South Africa is a signatory, that governs the international movement of waste.

But Veriworkz is planning to roll out the proposal to cash-strapped municipalities across the country, saying this would benefit their “revenue streams”. This could turn the country into a global landfill site.

Umdoni municipality approved a proposal on April 5 to accept as much as 300 000 tons of waste a month from Lebanon, which has been plunged into a rubbish crisis since the middle of last year. The project could net the small, tourismdependent council as much as $5.1million (about R73-million), according to documentation seen by the Sunday Times.

Umdoni municipality has just one landfill site, Humberdale, outside Pennington, with a maximum capacity of 240 000 tons. The municipality is planning an expansion of 200 000 tons.

Serious questions are being asked over the deal.

The plan was pushed through by the council within two weeks of it first being presented. No official documentation was ever provided, a senior opposition councillor said.

There was no public participation prior to the decision, nor was any environmental impact assessment ever completed.

Environmental affairs spokesman Albi Modise said the national department was notified by its provincial office that Umdoni municipality intended to import waste, but it was unaware that the decision had been approved.

Modise said international waste was being imported into South Africa, but only for recycling as part of waste-to-energy programmes.

This process was controlled by the Department of Trade and Industry’s International Trade Administration Commission and required a special permit.

Modise said the national department had instructed its provincial office to advise Umdoni to apply for a permit.

“The [department’s] position on this matter is that we do not support the import of waste for disposal,” said Modise.

In a presentation to Umdoni on March 23, Veriworkz claimed it had a partnership with London-based waste management company Chinook Urban Mining, which was liaising with Lebanon about the export of its municipal waste.

Lebanon has been gripped by a rubbish crisis that has seen the streets of its capital, Beirut, filled with refuse, causing environmental and health risks, say reports.

Some reports claimed citizens were fleeing to war-torn Syria to escape from the piling rubbish.

Earlier attempts to export the

The DEA’s position on this matter is that we do not support the import of waste for disposal

rubbish to Sierra Leone and Russia fell through after an outcry.

Veriworkz legal representative Solwazi Mbambo said: “The transaction is at its infancy. We remain uncertain whether or not it will be implemented given the strict timeframes that were imposed by the counterparts, some of which have already been missed.”

Despite this, the company was confident that a deal could still happen. Mbambo said negotiations were under way to ensure local and international laws and policies were “fully complied with”.

Chinook CEO Ferras Zalt denied that there was any agreement between his company and Veriworkz.

“I’ve never heard of them, to be honest with you, so I’m not sure what’s going on there,” said Zalt.

Chinook was at the centre of the initial trash-for-cash proposal put to Sierra Leone, which was abandoned because of allegations of irregular and fraudulent tender documents. The company was also at the centre of a second failed attempt to export rubbish to Russia.

Zalt said his company no longer had an agreement with Lebanon to export its waste and that, in fact, the country had backtracked on plans to send its rubbish abroad. This was confirmed by three Lebanon-based environmental experts contacted by the Sunday Times.

Zalt also said that South Africa was not a viable destination because it would take more than a month to ship rubbish from Lebanon to Durban.

“We’ll take action [against Veriworkz] if there are any damages,” said Zalt.

Umdoni municipal manager Xolani Luthuli said: “I’m told [the export of the rubbish] is not confirmed because, apparently, the guys who approached us [Veriworkz] are also bidding for the waste. It’s not like they’re confirmed as the people who are going to be importing it, as such.

“Apparently they wanted a decision so they could also [bid].”

Attempts to get clarity from Veriworkz about its relationship with Chinook and Luthuli’s comments were unsuccessful.

Umdoni DA caucus leader Edwin Baptie, who voted against the proposal, said Luthuli’s explanation was “absolutely not my understanding” of the deal.

Baptie said councillors were told that a decision was needed urgently because it had to be relayed to the Lebanese parliament before the end of the month.

Local environmentalist Adrienne Edgson said the municipality was ignoring requests for meetings from the public, who were outraged by the cash-for-trash deal.

Environmental health campaigner Rico Euripidou, of groundWork, said municipal waste could be anything from mixed household rubbish to disposed pharmaceuticals and batteries.

Pennington Ratepayers and Residents Association chairman Olive Goll said while municipalities throughout the world looked for ways to raise cash, importing trash was “unusual”.