Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
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Chapter 3: The politics of wasterequirements’ for landfills, designed primarily to prevent leachate contamination ofground water but to <strong>the</strong> neglect of air pollution.The situation for hazardous waste was no better. Over time, some 33 legislative actsparcelled out authority to different government departments for some aspect ofhandling toxic and hazardous wastes. In 1990, Ball and Bredenhahn observed that“no specific and integrated regulations pertaining to <strong>the</strong> management of such wastes(had) been promulgated and consequently cradle to grave control of toxic waste (was)non-existent” [1990: 204]. They predicted that this state of affairs could lead to “somesort of disaster” and anticipated public reaction “based on sensationalism and/oremotionalism, but not facts. Distasteful as this might be to <strong>the</strong> authorities and wastemanagement professionals, it would result in <strong>the</strong> restructuring of priorities, albeit froma position of relative weakness” [206].Politicising wasteIndeed, public reaction was already being mobilised. Earthlife Africa was formedin 1988 on a radical ‘green’ agenda that brought a political understanding to <strong>the</strong>environment. This agenda was later taken up by <strong>the</strong> broader environmental justicemovement. Several key <strong>the</strong>mes emerged: opposition to trade in toxic wastes; oppositionto incineration; <strong>the</strong> demand for adequate services in black areas; <strong>the</strong> demand for anend to dumping waste in black and poor areas; a demand for proper information onwaste and who was producing it; and a commitment to <strong>the</strong> waste hierarchy, startingwith <strong>the</strong> reduction of all waste and <strong>the</strong> elimination of toxic wastes, and followed by<strong>the</strong> re-use or recycling of remaining waste. This agenda emerged from struggles atmultiple levels: on <strong>the</strong> ground where waste is produced or dumped and in policy atlocal, national and international levels.Earthlife took waste as its first campaign issue and was immediately confronted by aproposal, put to government by businessman Sydney Saunders, to build an incineratoron <strong>the</strong> West Coast to burn imported hazardous waste. The proposal thus linked tradein toxic waste and incineration, two issues high on <strong>the</strong> international environmentalagenda, to anti-apar<strong>the</strong>id sanctions breaking. Earthlife argued against it on <strong>the</strong>segrounds and, in a series of public debates with Saunders, won wide public support.The campaign was also linking anti-apar<strong>the</strong>id and environmental campaignersinternationally. The political risk of <strong>the</strong> project thus escalated and it was abandoned.- 34 - groundWork - <strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong>