South Africa’s new National Waste Management Act went into effect on July 2, 2009.  Until now, South Africa has been without a national law which states how waste should be dealt with as well as the means to regulate this law. But, as with most undertakings as huge as a national system of laws for the minimization of waste and its safe disposal, the devil will be in the detail, environmental groups fear.  They have reservedly approved the law’s enactment.

“I was happy to see that some of the thinking that came out of the lobbying period, such as the notion of the extended producer responsibility, was expressed in the act,” said Patrick Dowling of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, whose input on the act was requested by the government.

The law includes stiff penalties for industrial polluters, with penalties of up to R10-million. Environmental management inspectors and each level of government will be in charge of enforcement.  

The new law requires each municipality and provincial government to establish its own guidelines to meet the requirements of the national law. Primary among those requirements is the reduction of waste and increased recycling.

According to Barry Coetzee, the head of integrated waste management for Cape Town, the city already has a pilot recycling programme which covers 130 000 households but has yet to establish an infrastructure for large-scale recycling.  

Patrick Dowling of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa said the legislation wasn’t specific enough on waste reduction. “They haven’t gone for an absolute on waste minimization.  It doesn’t come across clearly enough that there is way too much material taking up landfill space in South Africa,” said Dowling. �
The government now has two years to devise a National Waste Management Strategy.  

According to Albi Modise, director of communications for the Department Environmental Affairs and Tourism, the broad objectives of the act would be addressed by the national strategy.  These may include waste reduction targets around which a plan is formalized for waste reduction.  

In 2001, at a National Waste Summit organized by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, the government announced its commitment to develop a plan for zero waste by 2022.  

See Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) website www.environment.gov.za and click the link to the National Waste Management strategy.