Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wastelandfill and vehicles. “At Polokwane, incineration/waste-to-energy was promoted todeal with the balance of waste remaining and to ensure zero waste to landfill as per theUS and European models” [3-32]. The IWMP points out two flaws in the reasoning:first, that incineration does not result in zero waste as the ash from incineration addsup to 15% of the original waste volume and must still be dumped 35 and second, thatSouth African waste streams might be less than ideal for incineration because theproportion of highly combustible materials such as plastic is less than in Northerncountries. It should be noted that eThekwini’s assumptions that waste reduction canprecede incineration and that incineration has been a success in Northern countriesare themselves flawed [see Box 8].Incineration is not in fact mentioned in the Polokwane Declaration and some observersthink eThekwini’s interpretation bizarre. eThekwini waste managers, however, thoughtit implied incineration because the European example was made a constant point ofreference at Polokwane. Either way, it seems that the waste managers were redefiningthe concept of zero waste – together with waste prevention and waste minimisation– to fit their situation. The concept was no longer about reducing waste at source inthe production system. It was moved downstream to the end-of-pipe.It may be that the waste managers did not understand a concept imported from adifferent paradigm and so redefined it in more familiar terms. More likely, however,the redefinition was a necessity because the waste managers, and indeed the DEATitself, have zero influence on production. That is, they are structurally positioned atthe end-of-pipe so that the mandate for zero waste, and the legal requirement forminimisation, confronts them with a contradiction.In the 2004 IWMP, eThekwini’s Department of Solid Waste (DSW) reflects thispositioning. It argues that zero waste is impossible while minimisation is “contrary”to a waste service provider’s “primary goal” of growing the business [2004: 3-30]. Itsupports waste reduction and recycling “because these are national objectives” andconcludes that “recycling markets will drive the waste minimisation process to a largeextent” [3-15]. Thus, it reduces minimisation to recycling which, in turn, has beenplaced in the domain of private enterprise. The IWMP sees entering and controllingthe recycling market through public-private-partnerships as the only way to off-set thecontraction of its business but is reluctant to commit resources to recycling as long asmarkets and prices are unstable – which is as long as they are unregulated.35 This is a conservative estimate of the volume of ash [see Box 8].- 54 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation