Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
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Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresThe figures published subsequently are in fact even less reliable. The table does not<strong>the</strong>refore establish a trend. It is, for example, a running certainty that <strong>the</strong>re was noreduction in industrial or general waste between 1992 and 1997 as <strong>the</strong> two sets ofCSIR figures might indicate. Subsequent figures are both dated and misreported.Thus, <strong>the</strong> South Africa Environment Outlook, published in 2006, gives figures for“total hazardous waste generated in <strong>the</strong> financial year 1997/1998”. It comments, “Theonly additional studies undertaken since 1997 have been in <strong>the</strong> Western Cape, where68% increase in waste generation was documented between 1997 and 2002” [261-263]. In fact, <strong>the</strong> hazardous waste figures given for 1997/8 are merely recycled from<strong>the</strong> 1992 CSIR study as shown below.Hazardous wasteThe 1992 CSIR study proposed five categories of hazardous waste. Table 2 shows <strong>the</strong>categories and equivalent disposal – landfill or incinerator – requirements.Table 2: Hazardous waste categoriesGroup 1Group 2Group 3Group 4Group 5Waste categoriesHigh hazardous:Containing highly toxic constituents which are highly accessible,mobile, persistent in <strong>the</strong> environment, or bio-accumulative.Moderately hazardous:Dangerous, meaning highly explosive, flammable, corrosive, reactive,or infective; orContaining highly toxic constituents which are moderately mobile,persistent, or bio-accumulative; orContaining moderately toxic constituents which are highly mobile,persistent, or bio-accumulative.Low hazardous:Moderately explosive, flammable, corrosive or reactive; orContaining constituents that are potentially highly harmful tohuman health or to <strong>the</strong> environment.Potentially hazardous:Often large scale wastes –Containing harmful constituents in concentrations that in mostinstances pose a limited threat to human health or <strong>the</strong> environment.Non-hazardous:Containing, at most, insignificant concentrations of harmfulconstituents.DisposalcategoriesHighHazardLowhazardH:HH:h- -- 24 - groundWork - <strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong>