4.1 Integrated Waste Management Planning

4.1.1
The implementation of an Integrated Waste Management Planning system was seen as key to aligning and coordinating the activities of government and industry, in order to optimise waste management, maximise efficiency and minimise the associated environmental impacts and financial costs of waste. This was identified as a high priority short term initiative in the 1999 NWMS.
 

4.1.2
The Action Plan for the integrated waste management planning system required the promulgation and enforcement of regulations for integrated waste management planning, preparation of guidelines for the development of the plans, and awareness campaigns to promote the need for and approach to integrated waste management planning.
 

4.1.3 The following diagram represents the core of the integrated waste management planning system, which requires integrated hazardous waste management plans, integrated general waste plans and industrial waste management plans.

4.1.4

4.1.5
Two provinces have developed integrated hazardous waste plans, namely North West and Western Cape whilst the former has integrated this into its IWMP. Mpumalanga is in the process of developing its integrated hazardous waste plan. Whilst not a requirement of the 1999 NWMS, the North West has finalized its IWMP and the Northern Cape is in the process of doing so. However, the Waste Act addresses this by specifying that the provinces are required to prepare IWMPs as provided by Chapter 3 Section 11.
 

4.1.6
Over two thirds of district municipalities have developed integrated general waste management plans whilst just over three-fifths of the municipalities have developed theirs and the number of municipalities that have developed IWMPs in each province varies between 14% and 100%.
 

4.1.7
The status of the integrated waste management plans for industrial waste is unconfirmed since there no compulsory preparation or reporting requirements. This has been addressed by the Act, which provides that the Minister or MEC may obligate individual persons or category of persons or industries to submit integrated waste management plans.
 

4.1.8
With respect to guidelines for the preparation of IWMPs, the national framework guideline for the development of IWMPS has been drafted and three provinces, namely Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, have also produced provincial guidelines.
These guidelines will go a long way to ensuring consistency and uniformity in the development of the IWMPs, which currently show great variances in content and quality, as well as the extent to which they are included in municipal IDPs, which is important for aligning priorities and influencing the allocation of resources for implementation. As a result there are varying degrees of implementation of municipal IWMPs.
 

4.1.9
In terms of Industry IWMPs, the Department has developed draft guidelines and the Department of Minerals and Energy has developed a list of technologies to reduce the hazardous nature of waste.
 

4.1.10
In terms of regulations to enforce the required planning documents, these will be prepared in light of the promulgation of the Waste Act. At a provincial level, Gauteng province has drafted IWMP regulations obligating municipalities to prepare and submit IWMPs to province. The development of these regulations will be a significant enabling factor in the preparation of IWMPs by the provinces and municipalities.

4.2 Waste Information System

4.2.(1)
DEAT’s vision has been to establish a Waste Information System for South Africa which supports the needs of local, provincial and national government with respect to the management of waste, by collecting reliable, national data on waste, and by providing “accessible information to interested and affected parties, that will support effective integrated pollution and waste management” (DEAT, 2000).
 

4.2.(2)
It is also DEAT’s intent to collect this data without placing an undue financial and capacity burden onto industry and the private sector, which are responsible for providing the data, and government, which is responsible for collecting, verifying and disseminating the data and information.
 

4.2.(3)
Significant progress has been made in the development of the Waste Information System, which was one of the focal areas of the NWMS implementation project, with the development of the required software and launch of an online database. The system is currently underutilized as reporting has to date been done on a voluntary basis, but the Waste Act has now made the supply of this information mandatory, which will ensure that a comprehensive database of waste information can be generated. Furthermore, draft waste information regulations have been developed.
 

4.2.(4)
At a provincial level, Gauteng and Western Cape have Waste Information Systems with similar data fields, which ensures that the provincial information aligns with the national information requirements.
 

4.2.(5)
Key challenges with respect to the effective deployment of the Waste Information System will be to ensure that the database is populated and that the information is used to support effective integrated pollution and waste management, as anticipated by the White Paper.

4.3 Waste minimization and waste recycling

4.3.(1)
Waste minimization and recycling has been one of three focal areas for the NWMS implementation project. The objectives of this component of the project were to increase and extend waste recycling in selected pilot areas; identify new waste streams for recycling; expand existing recycling initiatives and improve as well as implement new recycling initiatives; and identify and develop appropriate mechanisms to promote sustainable recycling by all members of the recycling chain. Several demonstration projects have been launched in a bid to boost waste recycling in the country.
 

4.3.(2)
A great achievement in respect to waste minimization was the introduction of the Plastic Bag initiative, which was also the first use of a tax instrument to effect a change in consumer and industry behaviour. In the revision of the NWMS, careful consideration will be given to whether this form of tax instrument has produced the desired result and whether it can be extended to other areas of waste minimization.
 

4.3.(3)
Another milestone has been the drafting of the Cleaner Production Strategy in 2004, although it is yet to be approved by Cabinet. The implementation of the strategy resides with the Department of Trade and Industry, which has overseen the establishment of the National Cleaner Production Centre with demonstration projects in three industries.
 

4.3.(4)
In terms of the demonstration projects, one of these has been the implementation of an Industrial Waste Exchange Pilot Project Programme, which aimed to develop an industrial waste exchange programme for the Sedibeng District Municipality (comprising three local authorities, i.e. Emfuleni, Lesedi and Midvaal), as a model for reducing industrial waste currently disposed to the permitted landfill sites or illegal dumps.
 

4.3.(5)
A second leg to the programme was an investigation of Extended Producer Responsibility as a mechanism for bringing about waste reduction in South Africa, through the minimisation, reuse and recycling of waste products. A key finding of the investigation was that there is no single universal model of Extended Producer Responsibility. The systems implemented internationally share no common set of goals, no uniform regulatory structure, and no comparable pricing schemes. Hence, an Extended Producer Responsibility process for South Africa would need to be developed on a product specific basis.
 

4.3.(6)
The research process concluded that the following groups of products should be prioritised for further investigation and implementation for extended producer responsibility: plastic bags (the plastic bag initiative and introduction of plastic bag tax in 2006); glass (the Memorandum of Understanding); waste tyres (the Memorandum of Agreement on Waste Tyres and establishment of a tyre levy); and e-Waste (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment). The study also recommended that the experience gained and lessons learnt from the implementation of the Plastic Bag Initiative could be used to guide more effective and efficient implementation of future Extended Producer Responsibility initiatives for other products/commodities.
 

4.3.(7)
A third component of the recycling and waste minimization programme was the establishment of the Mbombela Recycling Pilot project to determine whether a recycling initiative could yield sustainable incomes for a co-operative comprising historically disadvantaged women. The project recently received funding from Buyisa-e-Bag to establish a Materials Recovery Facility, and it is too early to assess whether such a project is viable and replicable.

4.4 Waste collection and transportation

4.4.(1)
The starting point with regard to waste collection and transportation was to develop an understanding of the status of waste collection, and associated backlogs, at municipal level, which was achieved through a comprehensive baseline study in 2006.
 

4.4.(2)
In terms of determining waste collection standards, the CSIR has been appointed to develop these per the requirements of the Waste Act, a process that will run in parallel with the development of the NWMS. At a provincial level, Gauteng has drafted minimum waste collection standards and DEAT has developed guidelines for waste collection in dense areas.
 

4.4.(3)
Alternative approaches to waste collection have been successfully explored throughout the country. This includes the use of community-based SME contractors to collect waste in traditionally unserviced areas and ‘food for waste’ programmes whereby poor households collect domestic waste weekly in exchange for food parcels. There is significant scope for replication of these models and this will be considered in the revision of the NWMS.

4.5 Waste treatment

4.5.1
The NWMS Action Plan for Waste Treatment and Disposal focused on improvements in the regulation of all waste treatment facilities, including the revision and enforcement of air emissions standards. It sought to establish the status quo of these facilities and what actions should be taken to ensure sufficient waste treatment options for different categories of waste. It also aimed to ensure that treatment procedures comply with environmental, health and safety requirements.
 

4.5.2
A number of interventions have been put into effect to achieve the objectives of the 1999 NWMS. From a regulatory perspective, air emission standards have been reviewed and revised, and enforcement of standards has been significantly improved by DEAT. A review of the classification of hazardous waste is underway and an incineration policy has been drafted and made available for public comment. With regards to the status quo of waste treatment facilities, a great deal of attention has been invested in understanding the status of healthcare risk waste treatment, and demonstration projects in both an urban and rural context have yielded interesting results, which may address the challenges with regard to the effective and safe disposal of healthcare risk waste in poorly resourced environments. While the Department has taken great strides in relation to the priorities and action plans for waste treatment, it will be useful to ensure that all elements of the 1999 NMWS are fully implemented with regard to waste treatment.

4.6 Waste disposal

4.6.1
The challenges with regard to waste disposal are multiple, and underline the need for an updated understanding of the state of waste disposal, the extent of unpermitted landfill sites, the lack of landfill space, and the need to update the classification of hazardous waste. There are various initiatives underway or in place to address these issues. In terms of the need to improve waste information and statistics, the Waste Information System has been designed and implemented although it is currently underutilized. There is a process underway to identify which landfill sites have not been permitted and to prioritise and fast-track their permitting. There is also a review of the classification of hazardous waste, which will culminate in a new classification system to replace DWAF’s minimum requirements for waste categorization (2nd version, 1988).

4.7 Healthcare risk waste management

4.7.1
Healthcare risk waste (HCRW) management cuts across the priority initiatives identified by the NWMS and comprises a third focal area of the 1999 NWMS Implementation Project. The overall objective has been to improve the standard of HCRW management in South Africa, starting with quantification of the HCW stream as well as the available treatment/disposal capacities for the country. Information requirements for the measurement and monitoring of HCW were developed for the Waste Information System. A study has recently been conducted to determine the available treatment and disposal capacity for the country. The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has embarked upon a pilot project for improved HCRW management from smaller generators, which are those generators that generate up to 20kg per day of HCRW inclusive of all small health care facilities, health care private practitioners, other specialised institutions such as tattoo artists, traditional healers, mortuaries, and the like. A second pilot was developed for the Zeerust hospital complex as a means to develop a model to enhance HCRW management in a rural setting by developing safe, healthy and environmentally sound yet cost-effective systems for HCRW management. Lastly, draft HCRW management policy and regulations have been developed.

4.8 Key issues arising from the review of the implementation of NWMS 1999

4.8.1
The 1999 NWMS was an ambitious and comprehensive strategy that transformed the approach to waste management in the country, aiming for integrated waste management and implementing the concept of the waste hierarchy. Although the 1999 NWMS has not been implemented in its entirety due to institutional and regulatory constraints, a great deal has been achieved. These achievements are largely in three core areas, namely waste information, waste minimization and recycling, and healthcare risk waste management.
 
4.8.2
There are a number of regulations and guidelines that are in draft form that require finalization and implementation. A number of pilot projects have been designed and implemented as part of the NWMS Implementation Project and the recommendations and lessons from these must be considered for further application. The promulgation of the Waste Act will to a large extent address the stumbling blocks encountered during the implementation of the 1999 NWMS.