IT’S TIME FOR US TO GO TO ZERO WASTE
Chinese state councillors and diplomats Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi met with the newly appointed US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, and US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.
It was the first set of high-level engagements between China and the new Biden administration.
Expressing his regret for recent US action and “unreasonable accusations”, Yang said: “We thought that the US side would follow the necessary diplomatic protocols”.
In respect of the US’s own record on human rights, Yang stated: “So for China it was necessary that we make our position clear. So let me be clear that in front of the Chinese side, the
US does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength.”
“I can’t breathe”, those last words uttered by the late George Floyd – a black man who was killed by US police – together with the words by the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that “the scenes (of violence on the US Capitol before the presidential inauguration) we have seen are the result of lies and more lies, of division and contempt for democracy, of hatred and rabble-rousing, even from the highest levels”, indicate the level of disregard that the US itself has had for democracy and human rights.
The US administration’s inability to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the attacks on minorities, the onslaughts on democratic institutions, growing social unrest, inequality and the disregard for international conventions are indicators of an American society in deep trouble and who certainly cannot lecture the rest of the world.
Yang was hopeful that this round of talks would be honest and sincere. In particular, an intolerance for Western and specifically US interference in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang was expressed by the Chinese delegation.
China’s sole aim, an aim shared by any other country and the US, is to ensure the betterment of the livelihoods of its people.
China has introduced and institutionalised a system of governance that it found necessary for its conditions and a system of governance which has certainly paid off, literally eradicating poverty in a country of 1.2 billion people.
Africa and South Africa can learn from China. None of us can be bold enough to say we can do without other countries, especially a power such as the US.
Yet we must be able to insist on international principles such as national sovereignty while being the first to respect the sovereignty of other countries. We cannot interfere in the internal affairs of countries, especially neighbours.
All countries have their challenges but, like China, we must learn to address our own challenges first before pointing a finger at others. (no attachments). All letters must contain the writer’s full name, physical address and telephone number. No pen names.
besides our colour. Politicians don’t make it any easier – they clamour when an opportunity arises to score political points.
Is our justice system under attack? Has a precedent been set by others whom have shown total disregard toward our courts? Is anyone really above the law that they are untouchable – has the system lost its teeth?
Yet the layman in the street gets treated differently – roughed up and thrown into jail. can fill the chief justice position like the young, more capable Judge (Mbuyiseli) Madlanga. Justice Zondo has allowed and steered the state capture commission to be a waste of our resources, each time asking for extensions.
He inexplicably failed to correctly hear Jamnandas’ poor evidence, and he allowed his lawyer to lead Jamnandas while she was expected to ask him to clarify some of the things that Mpofu had levelled against him.
THE phrase “out of sight out of mind” can be applied to how many people regard their waste after refuse collection day.
Few households are aware that there is a landfill crisis – a serious issue that local leaders need to address.
One of the main reasons for this crisis is because municipalities fail to implement the most favoured options in the National Environmental Management: Waste Act – prevention, minimisation and reuse.
Another reason is that municipalities are not encouraging food waste and other solid waste to be separated at source.
This helps to prevent cross-contamination, increases recycling quality and quantity and maximises diversion from landfills.
Municipalities often argue that they lack sufficient resources to deal with the waste management problem. But while our government is dedicating recovery funds to get the economy back on track, there is an opportunity for it to disinvest from expensive solutions and move towards more sustainable, preventative measures – like adopting a zero waste approach.
Zero Waste is a whole system approach. It maximises recycling, minimises waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled back into nature or the marketplace.
In South Africa this is seen with the integration of waste pickers who provide collection and recycling services to municipalities, diverting waste materials from landfills.
Empirical evidence has proven that zero waste creates the most jobs and is financially, environmentally and socio-economically the most efficient system.
A new Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia) report, shows that Zero Waste strategies like reuse creates over 200 times as many jobs as landfills and incinerators.
Recycling creates about 70 times as many jobs as landfills and incinerators. And re-manufacturing creates almost 30 times as many jobs as landfills and incinerators.
More than 400 EU cities are committed to zero waste. The global climate action summit advancing towards zero waste declaration (August 2018) saw 40 of the world’s megacities committed to a diversion rate of 70% by 2030.
Benchmark cities where we can learn about zero waste are San Francisco (US) which diverted more than 80% of waste from landfill in 2012; San Fernando (Philippines) which plans to divert 91% by 2025; and Treviso Province (Italy) which diverts 85% – and is aiming for 100% diversion by 2022. Treviso has reduced the residual waste rate to 56kg/pp/year – more than four times lower than the German average targeting 10kg/pp/year by 2022!
The first zero waste pilot project was implemented in Witzenberg Municipality, Cape Winelands, in 2019-2020.
The Zero Waste Association of SA’s (Zwasa) short-term campaign is to undertake more zero waste projects in other Western Cape municipalities and to set up a municipal entity or partnership between 20-50 municipalities, similar to the Treviso Province where a public entity (Contarina) manages 50 municipalities with 260 000 households.
The Contarina model’s formula for success: The province decided to keep out incineration; all household waste is separated at source; a Pay-AsYou-Throw (“Payt”) incentive scheme was set up; efficient compliance monitoring; excellent IT database; control centre; continuous education and awareness; political cross-party consensus.
The key outcomes of our zero waste campaign are waste separation-at-source; a significant reduction of the landfill crisis; and achieving significant financial, environmental, and socio-economic benefits, especially job creation opportunities for the community and the municipality.
Zwasa is partnering with Gaia on a Global Day of Action, with organisations around the world, demanding our leaders go #BeyondRecovery to a future where zero waste practices drive clean air and water, more and better jobs, and a healthy environment for our families and communities – where nothing is wasted.
We cannot go back to the “normal” which brought us to this crisis. The task is easy if the majority play their part. Start with separation of organic and other waste at source, an easy step to a better environment.