Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 6: Down at the dumpscoming in but mainly because there has been a reduction in air-space as the permittedslope from the top has been reduced from 1-in-3 to 1-in-4. The neighbours, he says,do not believe this.Waste will then be diverted to the landfill inland at Mariannhill, to the recently openedBuffelsdraai in Inanda to the north of the city and to Lovu in the south which is stillto be developed. At present, Buffelsdraai takes 300 tonnes/day and Mariannhill takes700 t/d, so the diversion of Bisasar’s 3,800 t/d will massively increase the costs of wastetransportation.Escalating fuel costs are changing the economics of waste disposal according to Parkins.In 2004, the IWMP emphasised economies of scale in the operation of landfills, socreating a positive demand for waste. The objectives of waste reduction were thereforeseen to create an anomaly: Successful waste reduction and recycling “could reducethe waste stream, staff needs, vehicles etc. whereas a major objective is to increaserevenues” to maintain DSW’s own “profit sustainability” [3-13]. This could be off-setby actively taking control of the recycling market. Parkins comments that the shortterm ‘cost calculus’ has now swung towards reduction. This makes it easier to persuadecouncil – which generally focuses on income and costs over its five year term of officerather than taking long term benefits into account – of the benefits of reduction.Reduction, however, is largely reduced to recycling. DSW has no influence over whatis produced and minimisation at source is not therefore in its control. “We have totake what comes at us,” says Moodley.Following closure, DSW plans to construct a transfer station at Bisasar Road and isconsidering major recycling facilities to reduce the load to be carried to the distantlandfills. These include:- a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF);- a plant for crushing demolition rubble which might be sold for engineering fillmaterial;- a composting facility – or possibly ‘in-vessel gasification’ which is basically abiogas digester dealing with wet waste and producing methane gas as well ascompost.Recycling is preferable to dumping by a very long way. It nevertheless remains an ‘endof-pipe’solution. It does not reduce waste at source and may rather have the effectof creating a demand for waste to sustain itself. MRFs are themselves dirty places toWasting the Nation - groundWork - 141 -