WHAT A WASTE! WE ARE A THROWAWAY NATION - AND IT'S A CRISIS
Rubbish Habits | Landfills are reaching saturation point as the country simply ditches 90% of its waste without recycling
SOUTH Africans throw away the weight of nearly 15 000 Eiffel Towers of trash each year, and the country is running out of places to put it.
The country generates about 108 million tons of waste a year, with less than 10% being recycled. The bulk ends up in fast-filling landfill sites. According to the Department of Environmental Affairs, 98 million tons of waste is deposited across South Africa’s 826 landfills each year.
“If we continue to be a throwaway society, we will run out of [landfill] airspace,” the department warned this week.
Gauteng is at the forefront of the growing problem. The province produces an estimated 45% of the country’s trash, the bulk of which comes from the two main metros, Tshwane and Johannesburg.
At a presentation earlier this year, the Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development’s Zingisa Smale said the landfill airspace in the two metros “will be exhausted in less than 10 years”.
According to the Department of Environmental Affairs’s National Waste Information Baseline Report, Gauteng produces about 48.6 million tons each year.
The Western Cape is the second-biggest producer, with 21.6 million tons (20% of South Africa’s waste), followed by Mpumalanga with 10.8 million tons (10%) and KwaZulu-Natal with 9.72-million tons (9%). North West accounts for the least amount of trash with 1.08 million tons (1%).
“At least two of the big metros in Gauteng are running out of landfill airspace and since Gauteng contributes the lion’s share of the waste generated in South Africa, I think it’s only fair to say that South Africa is running out of landfill space,” said Professor Suzan Oelofse, research head at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Waste for Development unit.
She said: “Municipal waste from households amounts to about 389kg per person per year for South Africa.
“This is lower than the world average of 438 kg per person per year but higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa, which is 234kg per person per year.”
Jan Palm, president of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa, said the problems were across the board.
“Most municipalities are running out of airspace, and that’s across the country. There are a few that are lucky and have 20, 30, 40 years left, but they are in the minority,” he said.
Cape Town, Tshwane and Johannesburg were all in the same boat, he added, while other metros including Nelson Mandela Bay and eThekwini were “OK”.
“The problem is that waste volumes just keep on growing,” said Palm.
He said the problems were exacerbated by a lack of information, particularly in less urban municipalities.
“The information on landfills in South Africa is very inaccurate. A lot of municipalities don’t really know how much waste they have because they don’t have weighbridges [and] don’t know how much spare they have left at their landfills. The cities are more clued up,” he said.
The easiest-sounding solution is to simply build more landfill sites, but Oelofse said this was not truly viable because of land and cash factors.
This year, the former CEO of Johannesburg waste utility Pikitup, Amanda Nair, was quoted as saying a new landfill would cost about R1-billion.
Oelofse said: “Building more landfills is possible, but will come at a cost. Site selection for new landfills is not a trivial exercise since a number of issues need to be considered, including proximity to where the waste is generated, availability, cost and zoning of land, proximity to water sources to avoid potential water pollution, wind direction and possible air solution.
“Developing new landfills will compete with land for other development, especially in Gauteng, where prime land is in demand for economic development and housing.”
This means that the solution lies in getting the rubbish away from the landfills, a strategy that the department is pushing.
Department spokesman Albi Modise said: “We are encouraging recycling to ensure that as little waste as possible ends in landfill sites.
“Diverting waste away from landfill is a priority for waste management.
“Re-use, recycling and energy recovery, in this specific order, are preferred over landfill disposal.”
Oelofse agreed, saying that this would not only solve the trash crisis but also have financial benefits.
Some estimates indicate that additional recycling could generate R36-billion a year for the country and would also reduce the costs of getting the trash to landfills.
“It does not make sense to put material with resource value into a landfill, whereas it can be reintroduced into the economy. Why pay to manage material at a landfill when the same material can make you money?” said Oelofse.
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