Waste Campaigns
The fact that waste dumping and services is not a key issue in the South African State of Environment Report is an indication of government denial towards the growing challenge we have with waste management in South Africa. Indeed it was only in 2008, 14 years after democracy, that legislation pertaining to waste management reached the Presidency. No-one really knows how much waste is produced, recycled or dumped in South Africa. Developing a waste information system has been consistently identified as a priority since the early 1990's and has as consistently been neglected. As a result of this there is no definitive information on what waste is produced in South Africa. What is evident however, is that very many unlicensed waste dumps are situated in communities of colour. This is not a practice that has just been inherited from the apartheid government, but rather one that is reinforced by the development policies within a democratic South Africa. Read more...
200 strong South African Waste Pickers Association members protesting in the Global Day of Action on Saturday 2nd December 2011, uniting with waste pickers from Brazil, India and Senegal.
