The Western Cape has an estimated five years of landfill space left, while waste generation in the City of Cape Town grows at an average of about 7 percent a year, the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has warned.

Addressing delegates at the Waste Minimisation Summit this week, MEC Anton Bredell said the province's landscape had to be considered to best understand how the limited resources could be used to effectively manage waste.

He said daily waste was being generated according to the economic status of residents, with rich people generating an average of 2kg, middle-income groups varying between 1kg and 1.5kg, and poor people producing 7g of waste each day.

"Waste management generation is impacted on by people who have acquired a job in the Western Cape and who have a fixed place of residence, as well as by those who have migrated without a job and reside in an informal settlement," said Bredell.

If new informal settlements were established, it would increase the strain on the human and financial resources of solid waste management departments at municipalities. More transfer stations would be needed to temporarily hold waste before it was hauled off to limited landfills further out of town.

"The rapid development of the Western Cape, as well as general water, energy, pollution and waste, transport and other resource-use inefficiencies, is leading to extensive environmental degradation and bio-diversity loss," Bredell warned.

Article Continues: - IOL

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/hide comments