Challenges facing municipalities in waste management

Inefficient waste management, the collapse of infrastructure, corruption, health and safety, climate change and pollution have necessitated that serious action be taken to protect our constitutional rights and the environment.

By Stan Jewaskiewitz*

Few municipalities across South Africa comply with the waste regulations and local government lacks the responsibility or commitment for proper waste management, as well as the monitoring and licensing of facilities.

The impacts of landfill sites include odour, wind scatter, regular fires (smoke), and pollution (air, soil and water). The effects of these increase where communities live close to landfills.

Compliance to permit conditions is critical in mitigating the impacts of landfill sites. Many municipal landfill sites are not licensed, while licensed sites do not always operate according to their permit conditions. Poorly operated landfill sites impact on the environment and can cause nuisances and health risks to communities living nearby.

Uncontrolled dumping on a large regional licensed landfill. No spreading and compaction, and no cover soils. Uncontrolled emission of landfill gas and leachate

Legislation and technical guidance

South Africa has, by and large, some of the most advanced legislation and regulations governing the management and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). MSW comprises mostly domestic, commercial and industrial wastes, excluding hazardous wastes. The guidelines for the disposal of wastes to landfill (first edition) were published in 1994, followed by the second edition in 1998, namely Department of Water Affairs & Forestry, Second Edition, 1998. Waste Management Series. Minimum Requirements for Waste Disposal by Landfill. These are still in force today.

Waste management is also governed by the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (No. 59 of 2008), as amended, the waste classification and management regulations (R634), and the norms and standards for disposal of waste to landfill (R635 and R636).

Within the last two decades, there has been a concerted effort by the various regulatory authorities and other institutions to promote good waste management practices in accordance with the legislation via conferences, seminars, workshops and numerous training courses.

In 2011, the CSIR developed and published a good practice guide: Municipal waste management – good practices. Edition 1. CSIR, Pretoria. ISBN No: 978-0-7988-5596-9, March 2011. This guide (or toolkit) was intended to assist municipalities with improving their waste management and disposal practices.

Waste pickers, their families and animals living on a landfill

So, where did it go wrong?

Despite the legislation in place, the technical guidance and training provided, there are many landfills that are still not licensed or, if licensed, are not operated to any standard.

The photographs accompanying this article show the typical conditions still encountered on many municipal landfill sites across South Africa. As can be seen, none of these sites comply with any standards whatsoever!

An audit of some 127 landfill sites, spread across all nine provinces, was carried out in 2019 by a private organisation in collaboration with the relevant authorities. In the audit, it was found that 78% of the municipalities did not comply with the minimum requirements for landfill; only 22% complied. It also found that the compliance of landfill sites marginally improved between 2015 and 2018; this significantly declined thereafter.

The findings also show that there is a lack of political will to sustainably manage wastes by way of reuse, recycling and reducing, and to maintain and properly manage waste management infrastructure. There is also a lack of adequate waste management expertise among those responsible for the proper management of wastes.

Uncontrolled dumping and waste picking. No attempt at proper landfilling practices. No control of leachate emissions

So, who do we blame?

The poor management and operation of landfill sites can be ascribed to various factors, including:

• corruption

• lack of leadership and responsibility

• lack of waste management expertise

• outright disrespect for the relevant legislation and the environment

• insufficient funds or budget available for the proper development of infrastructure (landfills), landfilling management and operations, and rehabilitation

• misappropriation of funds or budget

• lack of political will

• low priority accorded to waste management and landfills in particular.

It has also been shown that, in the case of all illegal landfill sites (sites with no licence or operation plan) and those that do not comply with the minimum requirements, municipalities continue to use these sites for waste disposal regardless. These sites continue to create a risk for the environment and the health of people in the surrounding community.

Conclusion

In order to address the various issues as discussed above, consideration should be given to the following:

• The community needs to become involved with the functions of waste management within the municipality. This would increase the transparency of municipal processes and thereby improve the management of wastes.

• Municipalities should be forced to comply with their democratic responsibilities to create monitoring committees for the communities where they can provide input and operations can be critically analysed. Municipalities should also be forced to comply with their constitutional responsibilities with respect to sustainable landfill operations and management, and to demonstrate improvement on an annual basis.

• Relevant provincial departments should play a more active role in monitoring, law enforcement and licensing authority to improve waste management and landfill operations at local government level, in order to comply with their constitutional responsibilities.

*Stan Jewaskiewitz is a technical director at Envitech Solutions.