By Matthew Richmond
With a focus on environmental friendliness, the National Waste Management Act went into effect on July 2. But, as with most undertakings as huge as a national system of laws for the minimisation of waste and its safe disposal, the devil will be in the detail, environmental groups fear.
They have reservedly approved the law's enactment.
"I was happy to see that some of the thinking that came out of the lobbying period, such as the notion of the extended producer responsibility, was expressed in the act," said Patrick Dowling of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, whose input on the act was requested by the government.
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The law includes stiff penalties for industrial polluters, with penalties of up to R10-million.
Environmental management inspectors and each level of government will be in charge of enforcement.
Until now, South Africa has been without a national law that states how waste should be dealt with and how offenders should be punished.
The new law requires each municipality and provincial government to establish its own guidelines to meet the requirements of the national law.
Primary among those requirements is the reduction of waste and increased recycling.
According to Barry Coetzee, the head of integrated waste management for Cape Town, the city already has a pilot recycling programme covering 130 000 households, but the infrastructure for large-scale recycling was not yet in place.
"If you look at recycling programs overseas, ultimately there is some kind of tax that is raised to cover the costs," said Coetzee.
At a 2001 national waste summit in Polokwane the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism organised, the government announced its commitment to develop a plan for zero waste by 2022.
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