This year the ISWA’s “Waste to Wealth“ Conference was held from 15 -18 September in Cape Town. It covered the future of waste, the circular economy, plastic problems, composting of all organics, community involvement and the use of technology.
The 1400 waste practitioners who attended had 346 presentations to choose from! Initially it felt overwhelming, but I decided to focus on aspects such as services for the informal sector in dense areas (such as in Kleinmond and Hermanus), plastic pollution and how we start to avoid the plastic that we bring into our homes. Some interesting snippets:
* A rather sad story from an NGO based in Malawi about the dumping that takes place in a tourist area next to Lake Malawi but “out of sight” from the tourist hotels.
* A South African presentation on the damage due to the Throwaway Society in the textile industry: examples of some countries handling the piles of dumped clothes from the West. There is a small group in Gauteng who are setting up a business to make more durable clothing and are including the unemployed in the manufacturing, from the recovery of the raw material to the final article to the market place.
* SA Tyre industry: how our tyres are collected, transported to sites such as in Atlantis and Pinetown in KZN. Unfortunately a lot is stockpiled as there isn’t demand for old tyres here.
* Industry realises at last that the pressure is on to assist in the recovery. “Green washing” the public by inferring the customer is demanding what industry manufactures can no longer be believed. Government also needs to apply laws and regulations that can be carried out.
* Youth are the future leaders and they are the ones often demanding changes, marching and protesting in the streets highlighting serious pollution problems.
* Our government spelt out the value of utilising the informal pickers in the recycling process.
*A representative from the Alliance of the South African Informal Sector gave an excellent slide presentation on what is happening in Gauteng and Durban. Pickers are earning enough to put food on the table, send their children to school wearing uniforms and with study books.
* Some Cape Town areas are also doing just that and it is starting to show good results. Pickers are provided with uniforms and non-motorised transport to collect from residences and business. https://wastepickers.org.za/
What is clear is that we need to change how we look at waste. We all generate too much waste. We cannot carry on landfilling large amounts of waste or dumping outside of the towns. It is a health and safety issue that needs to be addressed urgently.
In the final plenary an appeal went out for delegates to talk to the politicians so that suitable representatives, with the skills and knowledge to contribute meaningfully, are sent to worldwide conferences on waste. A world treaty on waste has yet to be signed off!
Barbara Jenman