The government, through legislation seeks to equip businesses with regulations that will ensure sustainability of each and every business. EnviroServ is of the view that more should be done to first and foremost encourage and promote accountability on an individual level. We believe that consumers need to realise their obligations with regard to sustainability and responsible waste management and need to be constantly alert to make informed independent decisions on these critical issues. In this edition we share some of our success stories, and highlight what we deem to be some of the most important concepts to come out of the Waste Act.
Green initiatives worth their weight in gold:
In 2005 EnviroServ entered Mail & Guardian’s "Greening the future" awards. These awards are aimed at rewarding companies that promote environmental sustainability and those that display continuous commitment to promoting sound environmental business practices. EnviroServ’s first submission was in the category called "Innovative environmental practices that improve business performance". Amidst some hefty competition, EnviroServ was awarded a merit certificate for its submission on the Chloorkop Gas flare pilot project. In 2006 and 2007 we also received merit certificates for our submissions. After three years of coming second, we finally won the category in 2008 for our submission on recycling plastic and turning it into a marketable product. We were announced as joint winners with Woolworths.

This year we entered into the same category and at a gala event in Sandton, it was announced that EnviroServ had once again been awarded top honours. Our entry was for converting suitable waste into fertilizer pellets. We won the category and are now in a league of our own by winning the award two years in a row. This is an absolutely tremendous achievement and speaks volumes about EnviroServ.

Let’s not forget about the hard work that goes into winning these awards. We first have to brainstorm and come up with an innovative concept, and then put it into practice. This takes a considerable amount of time, research, planning and implementation and the culmination of all these efforts ends up in a submission to the Mail & Guardian for consideration (by a panel of Experts) of an award.

Well done to everyone who was part of the process that has once again led to EnviroServ being crowned LEADERS IN ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE WASTE MANAGEMENT.
ENVIROSERV AT THE MAIL AND GUARDIAN AWARDS
Is your waste a liability?

EnviroServ Waste Management will take the worry out of waste management. We will assess your various waste streams, classify them according to the appropriate legislation for safe handling, transportation and disposal, explore alternatives to landfill, investigate options to beneficiate your waste, recycle, re-use and ultimately reduce the time, effort and money you spend on waste management.
Contact Us

For any feedback on this newsletter please feel free to email comments to makgabos@enviroserv.co.za

EnviroServ Motivation
"It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past."
Karl Von Clausewitz
Waste Management Act 59 of 2008 (The Waste Act):

Generally, legislation is introduced in order to regulate a particular area of law and may seek to improve industry standards in respect of that area. If properly implemented, legislation can address problems facing that area of law and balance playing fields amongst stakeholders. The current Waste Management Act seeks to address South Africa’s "throw away" attitude in an effort to promote sustainability. Admittedly, these legislative measures alone are insufficient to address the intensifying climate change concerns. An advantage to having legislative measures in place is to rectify profit only mentality and to implement compliance measures which will hold accountable those that neglect the environment in their business dealings.

Purpose of the act:
  1. To reform the law regulating waste management in order to protect the health and the environment by providing reasonable measures for the prevention of pollution and ecological degradation and for securing ecologically sustainable development;
  2. To provide for institutional arrangements and planning matters;
  3. To provide for national norms and standards for regulating the management of waste by all spheres of government;
  4. To provide for specific waste management measures;
  5. To provide for the licensing and control of waste management activities;
  6. To provide for the remediation of contaminated land;
  7. To provide for the national waste information system;
  8. To provide for compliance and enforcement;
  9. and to provide for matters connected therewith.
Objectives of the act:
  1. To protect health, well being and the environment by providing reasonable measures for:
    1. Minimising the consumption of natural resources.
    2. Avoiding and minimising the generation of waste.
    3. Reducing, re-using, recycling and recovering waste.
    4. Treating and safely disposing of waste as a last resort.
    5. Preventing pollution and ecological degradation.
    6. Securing ecologically sustainable development while promoting justifiable economic and social development.
    7. Promoting and ensuring the effective delivery of waste services.
    8. Remediating land where contamination presents, or may present, a significant risk of harm to health or the environment; and
    9. Achieving integrated waste management reporting and planning;
  2. To ensure that people are aware of the impact of waste on their health, well-being and the environment.
  3. To provide for compliance with the measures stipulated elsewhere in the Act.
  4. Generally, to give effect to section 24 of the Constitution in order to secure an environment that is not harmful to health and well being.
WASTE HEIRARCHY

In Chapter 1 of the Act, "recycling" is defined as a process which involves the separation of waste from a waste stream for further use and the processing of that separated material as a product or raw material.

Under the Environmental Conservation Act (ECA), even recycled material fell within the definition of "waste". The Act has somewhat remedied this defect by mentioning that once a portion of waste( which is widely defined) has been re-used, recycled or recovered, it ceases to be waste and falls outside the ambit of the Act. The reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery of waste are activities that are regulated by the Act. Whether a particular material falls within the definition of waste will depend upon the circumstances.

Chapter 4

Part 1: Priority waste
Declaration of priority waste

14.1 The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, declare a waste to be a priority waste if the Minister on reasonable grounds believes that the waste poses a threat to the health, well-being or the environment because of the quantity or composition of the waste and-

a. that the specific waste management measures are required to address the threat; or
b. that the imposition of specific waste management measures in respect of the waste may improve reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery rates or reduce health and environmental impacts.

2. The MEC may in writing request the Minister to declare a waste to be a priority waste in the manner contemplated in subsection 1.

3. If the declaration of a waste as a priority waste is likely to have a significant impact on the national economy, such declaration may only be made after consultation with affected ministers (such as Minister of Trade and Industry and the Minister of Finance)

4. A notice under subsection1 or 2 must specify the waste management measures that must be taken.

Consequences of declaration of priority wastes

15. 1. No person may import, manufacture, process sell or export a priority waste or a product that is likely to result in the generation of a priority waste unless that waste or product complies with-

a. the waste management measures contemplated in section 14.4
b. an industrial waste management plan which has been submitted in accordance with specified requirements; or
c. any other requirement in terms of this Act.

2. No person may recycle, recover, treat or dispose of a priority waste unless it is in accordance with this Act and the waste management measures contemplated in section 14.4

The Minister may not declare a waste a "priority waste" without due consultation with affected parties and would need to demonstrate that the waste would have a negative environmental impact.

At this point, "scrap tyres" are recognised as a priority waste (although they have not been legally declared a priority waste in terms of the Waste Act). The tyre industry has developed an Integrated Waste Management Plan (IWMP) on how to deal with these at end-of-life.

Part 2: General duty
General duty in respect of waste management

16. 1. Any holder of waste must take all reasonable measures to -
a. avoid the generation of waste and where such generation cannot be avoided, to minimise the toxicity and amounts of waste that are generated;
b. re-use, recycle or recover waste;
c. where waste must be disposed of, to ensure that the waste is treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner;
d. manage the waste in such a manner that it does not endanger health or the environment or cause a nuisance through noise, odour or visual impacts; within that person’s power,
e. prevent any employee or any other person under his or her supervision from contravening this Act, and
f. prevent the waste from being used for an unauthorised purpose.

(2) Subsection (l)(e) and (f) does not apply to the owner or occupier of premises for domestic waste which is produced on the property where such waste is collected by a municipality or municipal service provider. Any person who sells a product that may be used by the public and that is likely to result in the generation of hazardous waste must take reasonable steps to inform the public of the impacts of that waste on health and the environment.

3. The measures contemplated in this section may include measures to -
a.investigate, assess and evaluate the impact of the waste in question on health and the environment;
b. cease, modify or control any act or process causing the pollution, environmental degradation or harm to health;
c. comply with any prescribed standard or management practice;
d. eliminate any source of pollution or environmental degradation; and
e. remedy the effects of the pollution or environmental degradation.

Part 5: Storage, collection and transportation of waste
General requirements for storage of waste

21. Any person who stores waste must at least take steps, unless otherwise provided by this Act, to ensure that –
a. the containers in which any waste is stored, are intact and not corroded or in any other way rendered unfit for the safe storage of waste;
b. adequate measures are taken to prevent accidental spillage or leaking;
c. the waste cannot be blown away;
d. nuisances such as odour, visual impacts and breeding of vectors do not arise; and
e. pollution of the environment and harm to health are prevented.

Duties of persons transporting waste

25. 1 The Minister, an MEC or a municipality may, by notice in the Gazette, require any person or category of persons who transports waste for gain to-
a. register with the relevant waste management officer in the department ,or province, or municipality, as the case may be; and
b. furnish such information as is specified in that notice or as the waste management officer may require

2. Take all reasonable steps to prevent any spillage of waste or littering from a vehicle used to transport waste;

3. Where waste is transported for the purposes of disposal, a person transporting the waste must ensure that the facility or place to which the waste is transported is authorised to accept such waste prior to offloading the waste from the vehicle;

4. Where hazardous waste is transported for purposes other than disposal, a person transporting the waste must ensure that the facility or place to which the waste is transported is authorised to accept such waste prior to offloading the waste from the vehicle and must obtain written notification that the waste has been accepted;

5. A person who is in control of a vehicle, or in a position to control the use of a vehicle which is used to transport waste for the purpose of depositing waste is deemed to knowingly cause such waste to be deposited unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Part 8: Contaminated Land
Please note that this section of the Act has not yet come into force.

The Waste Act defines ‘contaminated’ to mean -the presence in or under any land, site, buildings or structures of a substance or micro-organism above the concentration that is normally present in or under that land, which substance or micro-organism directly or indirectly affects or may affect the quality of soil or the environment adversely.

Identification and notification of investigation areas

36.1 The Minister or the MEC in respect of an area which affects that province, may, after consultation with the Minister of Water Affairs and any other organ of state concerned, by notice in the Government Gazette identify investigation areas, where-
a. high risk activities are taking place/have taken place on land that are likely to result in land contamination; or
b. land is believed by the Minister or MEC, on reasonable grounds, to be contaminated.

Please note that due to spatial restrictions, we could not publish or comment on all elements of the Act. We have however, attempted to shed some light on some of the most frequently asked questions.
 
Environmental News

In a couple of days, world leaders will be heading to Copenhagen for the United Nations’ Climate Change conference which is to be held from the 7 to 18 December.

What is going to happen in Copenhagen in December is not just talk; leaders aim to take concrete resolutions to combat climate change.

The South African delegation, led by Ms. Buyelwa Sonjica, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, and Rejoice Mabudafhasi, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Water and Environmental Affairs is optimistic that the discussions will provide some clear guidelines on measures that need to be implemented in efforts to curb climate change and to reduce carbon emissions in both developed and developing countries.

Upon their arrival at the conference, these leaders will be presented with a petition with well over 500,000 signatures from some concerned citizens of the world. The Climate Petition is a consolidation of global appeals for a definitive agreement on Climate Change.

The Climate Petition reads:

"We, the Peoples of the World Urge Political Leaders to:

Seal the Deal at COP 15 on a climate agreement that is definitive, equitable and effective.

Set binding targets to cut greenhouse gases by 2020.

Establish a framework that will bolster the climate resilience of vulnerable countries and protect lives and livelihoods.

Support developing countries' adaptation efforts and secure climate justice for all."

There is still time for YOU to sign this petition.

Please take 3 minutes of YOUR time, visit www.sealthedeal2009.org/
climate-change-south-africa and should you agree with this initiative, sign away.
Useful Links
Did you know that you
can evaluate your
individual impact on the environment?

Please visit
www.myfootprint.org
to calculate your
individual footprint.
Please visit
transport-watch.co.uk
to read all about the automotive industry’s efforts and hindrances in going green.
EnviroServ key services
Transportation and disposal of hazardous waste
On-Site waste management
Hazardous spill response
Alternative to landfill, recycling, AFR, beneficiation and bioremediation
www.enviroserv.co.za
For any queries
please feel free to contact us
JHB
(011) 456-5400
Cape Town (021) 951-8420
Bloemfontein (051) 438-0476
PE (041) 466-2741
Durban (031) 902-1526