Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 2: Rubbish Figuresto 1.89 mt/y, the figure given in 1992 as hazardous waste. Further, the figure here forall hazard rated mining waste is precisely 3,000 out from 1992’s total mining wastefigure of 376,639,051 t/y – suggesting that a typo crept in along the way. 11 The finaltotal is then copied from the source, rather than calculated, and is consequently 3,000out. In short, there has been no update since 1992 but the figures have been turnedfrom cautious estimates to ‘facts’.The original hazard ratings covered all mining and industrial waste. If it is classifiedas non-hazardous, it goes into Group 5. CSIR 1997 apparently added 90 mt/y to the1992 mining waste figure, 12 but this is then reported as additional to the hazard ratedwaste. Thus, according to the Environment Outlook, “The Department of Mineralsand Energy indicated in 1997 that mining was accountable for about 470 milliontonnes of waste, both general and hazardous” [261]. So the extra 90 mt/y is madeto appear as ‘general waste’ – a category that does not exist in the rating system. It isindeed likely that mining waste increased from 1992 to 1997. That the entire increasewas non-hazardous is improbable. Rather, it is apparent that the additional waste wasnot classified. Clearly the authorities, starting with the DME which has insisted onkeeping mining waste under its authority, do not know what is in the waste. Further,it seems that the hazard rating system itself is no longer understood.This is perhaps a useful incomprehension in that the democratic transition has madeclassification itself hazardous. By avoiding it, the authorities can evade demands forpublic accountability and so shelter corporations from the “commercial risks” thatmight come from people knowing what is dumped in their locality.There is another difference. The 1992 figures included waste matter in air and wastematter in waste water as well as solid and liquid waste. Thus, the 15,373,009 t/y totalfor manufacturing is divided as follows:- Waste in air: 323,358- Waste in waste water: 602,027- Solid and liquid waste: 14,447,62411 The typo is in mining waste hazard group 4, which reads 34,772,629 in CSIR 1992.12 The 1997 CSIR report seems unavailable so it was not possible to check how it arrived at its figures. It seems tobe one of three ‘baseline studies’ referred to in the DWAF’s 1998 edition of the ‘minimum requirements’. Noneare available.- 26 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation