Dumping spirals out of control
Since the Bisasar Road Landfill Site in Springfield Park 'downsized' its operations illegal dumping has escalated in the area.
ILLEGAL dumping along Electron Road, near the Bisasar Road Landfill Site has escalated at an alarming rate in the last few months, said Sunningdale resident, Daryn Maritz.
According to Maritz, who runs a skip hire company, the illegal dumping spiraled out of control after the landfill site in Springfield Park began rejecting certain waste materials.
“People have always dumped in the area, but it has never been this bad. When the landfill site began turning people away they simply resorted to dumping their waste down the road,” he said.
Maritz said he believed officials were in the process of shutting down the local landfill site.
The resident said he was irked by the fact that the City had not made any temporary provisions for the local communities.
“I feel that they should have at least provided the community with a transfer station so that we could still offload our waste. What will happen when the site completely shuts down? This directly impacts us and our livelihoods. We will now have to travel as far as Mariannhill or Verulam to legally dispose of some of our waste materials,” he said.
Loganathan Moodley, of Durban Solid Waste (DSW), confirmed that they had ‘downsized’ the operations at the Bisasar Road Landfill Site, saying they now only accept garden refuse, builders rubble and sand or cover material.
“All other general waste such as solid refuse is no longer being accepted,” he said.
“The influencing factor was that the Bisasar Road landfill was approaching capacity. The Bisasar Road Landfill is still open but to selected waste streams that will be used to finalise levels for the sites’ capping and rehabilitation,” he said.
Moodley said DSW is aware of the illegal dumping and had escalated it to the City. “Stakeholders from the City have been contacted and the plan is to restrict people from stopping in this area to drop waste illegally and place enforcement officers,” he said.
He emphasised that citizens have a responsibility to ensure that their waste is safely disposed off at any one of the landfill sites. Alternative sites he suggested includes the Mariannhill, Buffelsdraai or Lovu landfill sites.
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