GAUTENG is facing a waste crisis of enormous consequences, says the Democratic Alliance.
The party has warned that the clock is ticking on the lifespan of landfill sites in the province, while government seems blithely unconcerned.
Clr Gary Scallan, DA member of environmental waste management services, in a statement said the DA in Ekurhuleni was particularly worried about the state of waste in its own metro, and how the waste disposal scenarios in the City of Johannesburg and Tshwane will impact on its landfill airspace in the immediate and long-term future.
“A few weeks ago the private FG landfill site in Olifantsfontein was threatened with closure by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). The event triggered panic among waste officials from Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg about what to do with the about 55 000 tonnes of waste presently being directed to the FG landfill site a month,” Scallan said.
“The Northern Regions of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni do not have any remaining historically developed municipal landfill sites and are dependent on private operators.
“At present, the Southern Regions of Tshwane, which include Centurion, direct their waste to the Onderstepoort landfill, which is about 35km to the north. And this site is due to close at the end of 2017 as it will reach full capacity.
“The challenges facing Tshwane is where to redirect these 60 000 tonnes of waste a month. At present, Tshwane’s combined landfills have a remaining life of seven years. Johannesburg’s combined remaining landfill life is sitting at six years, which includes the current use of the FG landfill.
“Due to erratic and poor planning, the unequal geographic spread of landfills in Gauteng will see a dramatic increase in transport costs, which will ultimately result in a substantial increase in waste collection tariffs per household. In the case of the FG landfill site closing temporarily or permanently, Ekurhuleni would need to redirect the Tembisa and Olifantsfontein waste to the Weltevreden landfill in Brakpan, some 45km to the south-east.
“This would create an immediate bottleneck of collection vehicles entering the landfill, reducing turnaround time at the landfill, and delaying collection rounds in the towns of Brakpan, Benoni, Kempton Park and parts of Boksburg,” Scallan added.
He said refuse collection was already a problem in Ekurhuleni for an entirely different reason: refuse trucks are regularly in short supply due to broken-down trucks and extended repair times.
“Ekurhuleni has the most remaining landfill airspace out of the three large metropolitan municipalities and should not bear the brunt due to bad planning elsewhere in the province.
“The DA requests the provincial government, backed by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), and with the buy-in of all Gauteng local governments, to convene at the soonest a gathering of all players in the waste industry to discuss an immediate solution for the looming crisis. These discussions should include short-, medium- and long-term solutions.”
Findings presented in this article form part of a presentation due to be made by Kobus Otto (Kobus Otto & Associates) at the Institute of Waste Management of South Africa (IWMSA) workshop on Landfills in Gauteng on March 29 at PlasticsSA, Midrand.
