Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteThe Polokwane Declaration remains a formal declaration of national intent and isdisplayed on the DEAT’s website. Insiders comment that the reduction target wasno more than a rhetorical flourish made in ignorance of the reality of waste. It is alsosaid to be out of step with government’s managerial cycle which starts with goodinformation as a basis for understanding the problem. Government, however, wasnot collecting the information. Nor was it developing a waste information system asmandated in the NWMS and again at Polokwane.Another two years passed before the DEAT initiated an NWMS implementationproject. As if to emphasise the low priority given to waste by government as a whole,the department had to resort to foreign donor funding from Danida. Within theperiod 2003 to 2006, the project aimed, amongst other things, to establish a workingwaste information system. In 2005, it produced a framework document for a wasteinformation system [DEAT 2005c]. The beginnings of a working system were onlyevident in 2008 and data appears to be coming in from just six or seven municipalitiesnationally. Waste handlers are required to register on the system although it is notclear how many have done so. There is no requirement for waste producers, includinghazardous waste producers, to register. The system thus remains focused on the endof-pipe.This is perhaps the default position arrived at in the absence of any discerniblepurpose driving the collection of information.For environmental activists, Polokwane’s ‘zero waste’ declaration indicated acommitment to radical change in the whole system of production and consumption:First, it implied that the use of materials must be substantially reduced, not merely inrelation to GDP but in absolute terms; second, that production must be detoxifiedto eliminate hazardous wastes as well as to reduce the energy intensity of production;third, that the by-products of one production process are redefined as resources forother processes; fourth, that products are designed so that they last longer, can be reusedand mended, can be returned to the producer as a resource for the next round ofproduction and / or, finally, will degrade and be assimilated back into the environmentwithout harm. This is discussed further in Chapter 7.It appears, however, that other stakeholders understood something quite different.Thus, eThekwini’s 2004 Integrated Waste Management Plan (IWMP) argues that thelimits of minimisation and recycling are reached when the costs exceed the avoidedcosts of dumping. It then estimates this limit at a 25% reduction against current costsand a maximum 50% reduction against total costs including future investments inWasting the Nation - groundWork - 53 -