South Africa’s landfill sites are in a terrible state and if drastic measures are not taken, the country will soon drown in its own waste. (Andy Mkosi)
South Africa’s landfill sites are in a terrible state and if drastic measures are not taken, the country will soon drown in its own waste, the past president of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa has warned.
“Aesthetically, 80% of the landfills in South Africa are the worst I have experienced in my 35 years’ of developing and managing landfill facilities,” Leon Grobbelaar the president of the institute said.
South Africa has 1 000 landfills, ranging from communal to large landfill facilities, with few private landfill management companies operating.
Reflecting on the waste management industry between 1995 and 2023, he said that in 1995, South Africa operated with the waste management series (minimum requirements), which were developed by the then-department of water affairs and forestry together with other parties.
These minimum requirements were used as guidelines to permit landfills — hazardous or domestic — at the time and to set certain standards depending on classification, volumes, and geographical areas.
“Most of the landfill facilities in the 1995 era were historical old gravel quarries used by municipalities to mine materials for roads and to dispose of their municipal solid waste. These quarries were not lined with no leachate drainage systems.”
Although leachate — contaminated liquid generated from water percolating through a solid waste disposal site — was present in these facilities, it was not visible, draining freely into the underground water resources. “At the time, while some newer landfill facilities were required to construct containment barriers from soil or polymers, they were few and far between”.
In 1998 and 2008, the government published the National Environmental Management Act and the National Environmental Management: Waste Act.
“During this time, the general standards of landfills in South Africa were still operated on an acceptable standard. Although the private sector did operate landfills under contract to municipalities, the bulk of the hazardous waste landfills in South Africa was in private hands.”
Norms and standards
The Waste Act allows for an integrated system of norms and standards across the three spheres of government, which provide the foundation of the regulatory system.
Grobbelaar explained that under the latest norms and standards for landfills and treatment facilities, all landfill facilities that receive hazardous or municipal solid wastes are required to have protection barriers as well as lined pollution and clean water storage dams.
This is to contain all leachate for treatment before discharge into the environment, irrespective of the size of the landfill facility.
“The failure of the new lining systems is because of poor quality control during construction or poor commissioning and operation during the operational phase. Some municipalities do not have the means, know-how and expertise to operate these engineered landfill facilities to the required standards and therefore compromise the very expensive protection barriers installed.”
Although South Africa has made huge strides to improve its legislation and development standards, “we went backwards on the operational standards”, Grobbelaar said, noting that international regulatory authorities applaud the country’s waste legislation as some of the best in the world.
Airspace crisis
“Of late, many landfills are on fire and then closed for rehabilitation before they can open again. Because these facilities are not managed to set standards and principles, it has a negative effect on the environment and the nearby residents take the law into their own hands and demand premature closure of these facilities.
“Illegal dumping has increased tenfold because of the lack of acceptable recycling facilities and we are filling up the remaining landfills at a rapid pace to such an extent that Gauteng and in a lesser sense, the Western Cape, is running into an airspace crisis.
“Until we take the pollution of our environment and water resources seriously, we are heading for a serious disaster like our energy shortage but with the difference that illegal dumping will attract rodents, air pollution and many other health issues.”
Waste is dumped in and on the banks of streams and rivers, which in return ends up in dams and oceans. “It is a known fact that South Africa won’t have clean drinking water by 2040 and clean water is important to the health and well being of humans and animals.”
He added that 90% of domestic waste is generated and collected by local authorities that are either under administration or don’t have the budget or means to implement new facilities, “not even to mention the discipline to operate these facilities to the required licence conditions”.
While regulatory authorities issue non-compliance notices to municipalities, “we seldom see any prosecutions due to the non-compliances”, he said.
Population boom
In the past 26 years, the country’s population has grown by more than 21 million people, said Peter Mbelengwa, spokesperson for the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment. The number of households had grown proportionally from nine million in 1996 to more than 19 million in 2022.
“This has resulted in significant increases in waste production with a recent study conducted by the department showing that South Africans produced roughly 122 million tonnes of waste per year,” he said.
This growth has created pressure for municipal waste management systems, leading to interventions by national and local governments through the creation of the 2012
national waste management strategy.
“The strategy reflects the government’s ambitious goal of transitioning from linear to circular interventions and emphasises the need to reduce, re-use, recycle and recover all waste.”
The pillars of the strategy address waste minimisation, effective and efficient waste services, including household waste collection — a key role of local government — compliance and protection of the environment.
Cleaning and greening programme
Last month, the department launched its cleaning and greening programme to help municipalities with waste management services. This involves litter picking in prioritised streets, clearing illegal dumps, planting trees and promoting recycling services.
“This programme, which is running across all provinces in select district and metro municipalities through the Expanded Public Works Programme … and has created 37 049 jobs.”
In 2022, the department launched the National Yellow Fleet to help municipalities by purchasing waste collection vehicles for “struggling municipalities”. Mbelengwa said that since the launch, 58 municipalities were assisted with these vehicles at a cost of more than R168 million.
Tackling waste streams
A key finding from Plastic SA’s 2018 recycling survey was that 46% of plastics waste was collected for recycling, “making South Africa one of the best mechanical recyclers in the world”, he said.
“A significant contributor to this is the informal waste management sector, which according to the Waste Pickers Association, has more than 90 000 waste pickers. In 2014, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research found that waste pickers saved municipalities between R309 million and R748 million in landfill airspace, by simply diverting recyclables from landfills.”
Since then, Mbelengwa noted, local government has developed initiatives to formalise informal workers, using guidelines developed by the department in 2020. These provide guidance to municipalities and industry on how to support and improve their conditions.
To “further combat waste pollution and minimisation of landfill usage”, the department introduced the mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which came into effect in 2021.
The EPR is a system that makes producers financially and operationally responsible for the end-of-life management of products they produce.
There are six such schemes under implementation in the paper and packaging; electrical and electronic equipment; lighting; pesticides; batteries and lubricant oils sectors.
“The EPR schemes have continued to create employment and for the calendar year 2022, 2 845 direct jobs, 37 indirect jobs and 20 786 informal jobs were created,” Mbelengwa said.
This year, the government implemented a restriction of a minimum of 50% recycled content as part of the product design measures for plastic carrier bags. “The intention is that by 2027, plastic carrier bags and black refuse bags should be made from 100% recycled material.”