Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresThe figures published subsequently are in fact even less reliable. The table does nottherefore establish a trend. It is, for example, a running certainty that there was noreduction in industrial or general waste between 1992 and 1997 as the two sets ofCSIR figures might indicate. Subsequent figures are both dated and misreported.Thus, the South Africa Environment Outlook, published in 2006, gives figures for“total hazardous waste generated in the financial year 1997/1998”. It comments, “Theonly additional studies undertaken since 1997 have been in the Western Cape, where68% increase in waste generation was documented between 1997 and 2002” [261-263]. In fact, the hazardous waste figures given for 1997/8 are merely recycled fromthe 1992 CSIR study as shown below.Hazardous wasteThe 1992 CSIR study proposed five categories of hazardous waste. Table 2 shows thecategories 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 the 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 the environment.Potentially hazardous:Often large scale wastes –Containing harmful constituents in concentrations that in mostinstances pose a limited threat to human health or the environment.Non-hazardous:Containing, at most, insignificant concentrations of harmfulconstituents.DisposalcategoriesHighHazardLowhazardH:HH:h- -- 24 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation