Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 6: Down at the dumps… landfillsIn consequence of the refusal to build the public sector skills base, the formalisation ofdisposal, following the introduction of the minimum standards, has played unevenlyinto the privatisation agenda, creating skills requirements to which only the largermunicipal departments could respond. This is now likely to be taken further as theDEAT takes over the DWAF’s responsibility for regulating landfills. DEAT’s ambitionis to close all the smaller un-permitted dumps in favour of large regional landfills. Thisis already anticipated in the planning of some district and metropolitan municipalities.eThekwini hopes to strike deals with neighbouring municipalities to take their wasteto its new Buffelsdraai landfill. uMgungundlovu is currently looking for a site tobuild a new landfill to take waste from the entire district – although this plan may bescuppered by Msunduzi’s metro ambitions. Unlike eThekwini, uMgungundlovu seesno prospect of running the landfill itself and plans to hawk it out to a private operator.Emfuleni is considering a major landfill to the “west of the Vanderbijlpark steel plant”– possibly in the already polluted Steel Valley. Operations at the Boitshepi dump arealready privatised so the municipality has been paying for the development of theoperator’s skills base.The peak of global oil production, anticipated in two or three years although likelyto be delayed by economic depression, will play havoc with these plans for superdumps.On the one hand, the rise in fuel prices will accelerate, making long distantwaste transport unviable. On the other hand, the global depression now in prospectwill likely force a reduction in waste, undermining the logic of economies of scale.Either way, a wholesale review of waste management will become necessary but thevolatility of markets and prices will make traditional cost-benefit planning virtuallymeaningless.… ‘green’Integrated waste management incorporates waste into the orders of ecologicalmodernisation. The waste hierarchy here becomes a series of niche markets in whichproperty rights are created in activities such as recycling to supplement the mainbusiness of disposal. Formalisation of landfills, notably the fencing in of sites, thuscombines with the waste hierarchy – or rather, the commodities boom – to createthe conditions for formalising recycling, elbowing out the waste pickers in favour offormal businesses.- 176 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation