The low levels of household waste recycling, coupled with increased urban migration, is putting a strain on the city council’s waste disposal efforts, said MC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Matshidiso Mfikoe.
“According to data from the Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africans disposed of 41 683 249 tons of waste in 2013,” Mfikoe said.
She said the management of waste disposal was of great concern both nationally and at municipal level.
“The City has its own unique challenges in managing the disposal of waste from our homes, schools, office complexes, informal trading centres,” Mfikoe said.
“Notwithstanding the fact that Johannesburg is the beacon for local and foreign nationals for economic opportunities, this movement of people into the city has added an extra burden on the capacity of our landfill airspace.”
According to Mfikoe, there was evidence that if landfills were not managed properly they could be a public health and environmental hazard.
In response to this and other challenges, the city council, through its waste management company Pikitup, has developed an aggressive waste minimisation strategy geared towards moving away from traditional waste disposal methods. At present, 93 percent of waste is disposed at landfill sites and with a new strategy it is envisaged that only seven percent of waste will be disposed of at landfills by 2040.
The city council and Pikitup were partnering with communities and the private sector to address waste management challenges, she said.
Different waste management streams include raising awareness around recycling through the Separation at Source Programme, which saw 14 000 tons of recycled waste diverted from landfills this financial year.
Although the current public participation rate was only 25 percent, the city council hoped to increase participation to 70 percent by 2016, the MMC said.
This city council’s Jozi@Work initiatives, which includes work packages linked to waste collection and separation, waste processing including selling waste to others, and converting waste into biogas, are also expected to contribute to promoting public participation.
The city council is also set to implement alternative waste treatment, a project that will use technology to treat residual waste.
Meanwhile, Pikitup is awaiting the delivery of mobile builders’ rubble machinery to tackle the growing problem of rubble disposal.
