Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsChapter 6: Down at the dumpsDumps share characteristics, but each dump is individual with an individual history.They also form part of the web of local government politics, in which arrangementsare made and opportunities created. This section looks at waste and its management infour municipalities, two in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Vaal Triangle, and focusesin on particular dumps in each of them. It starts with the eThekwini metropolitanmunicipality where Durban’s Bisasar Road landfill is reputed to be the biggest municipaldump in Africa. It then moves up the road to the secondary city of Pietermaritzburgand its New England Road landfill. Pietermaritzburg is located in the Msunduzi localmunicipality which in turn is at the centre of the Mgungundlovu district municipality.The next two case studies are in the Vaal Triangle. The Emfuleni local municipalityis part of the Sedibeng district in the south of Gauteng province. Vanderbijlpark’sBoitshepi dump and the Palm Springs dump in Sebokeng are explored along with thelegacy of illegal dump sites. Across the Vaal River in the northern Free State, Sasolburgis the polluted heart of the Metsimaholo local municipality and the focus is on theSasolburg town dump.The case studies thus move across the uneven terrain of waste management from arelatively well resourced metro, to a secondary city in a ‘B1’ municipality and endswith two ‘B2’ municipalities centred on very significant industrial towns. Regrettably,it was not possible to go further down the municipal hierarchy. The studies considerthe vital statistics of waste, in so far as they are known, and the pollution producedat the dumps. They also explore the local politics and economics of dumping andrecycling.Waste pickers, or reclaimers, are particularly vulnerable to exclusion from decisionsthat affect their lives. Taken together, the studies show that the process of formalisingwaste management is accompanied by the progressive exclusion of waste pickers fromdumps and their marginalisation or subordination within the economy of recycling.This process is highly uneven and the case of Palm Springs in Emfuleni indicates thatmanagers do have other options. The pickers themselves are anything but passive. Theyhave vigorously resisted their marginalisation and, with uneven success, developedstrategies responding to the formalisation process.Wasting the Nation - groundWork - 137 -