Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresFor the most part, the quantity of domestic waste is calculated on the basis that differentincome groups produce more or less rubbish per capita. However, not everyone usesthe same assumptions as shown in Table 4.Table 4: Per capita domestic waste productionCape TownDurbanIncome group Kg/day Kg/year Location Kg/day Kg/yearHigh 1.3 474 Suburbs 0.5-0.8 180-290Middle 0.7 255 Township 0.4 146Low 0.35 127 Informal 0.18 65Sources: Swilling 2006; eThekwini Municipality 2004.The Environment Outlook uses figures similar to Cape Town’s, although it attributesmore waste (0.4 kg/day) to low income groups. It then calculates national domesticwaste at 8.8 mt/y. According to Swilling [2006], Cape Town produces just over 2 mt/y.Of this, 895,000 t/y is domestic so the larger part is ‘trade’ waste from commerce,industry and institutions such as universities and hospitals. On this basis, the higherrange of the Environment Outlook’s estimate of general waste – 15 mt/y – lookscredible.The Outlook observes that waste has “increased over the last 7 years due to risingpopulation and economic growth” [DEAT 2006a: 261]. Better off South Africansappear peculiarly wasteful. According to the National Framework for SustainableDevelopment (NFSD), domestic waste from richer households in some cities “is risingabove the daily average of 2 kg/person, which is 3-4 times the quantity disposed ofby the average household in most European cities”. Further, “MSW quantities aregrowing faster than the economy in many cities – for example, at 5% per annum inCape Town” [DEAT 2006b: 34].In 2007, DEAT commissioned an assessment of municipal waste management [DEAT2007a]. The assessment surveyed all municipalities although not all responded. If thefigures reported by municipalities are to be believed, then the country produces far moregeneral waste than previously estimated. Table 5 shows how much waste municipalitiessaid they collected. It shows the categories of municipalities, the number of municipalitiesin each category, the total number of households in all those municipalities, and theamount of waste collected averaged across those municipalities. The last two columnsare calculated on the basis of the figures reported in the assessment.- 28 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation