Reflecting on waste management strategies for South Africa

The energy crisis, global warming and a cleaner environment are arguably amongst the most pressing issues at present facing modern society. Before devising a suitable strategy to convert a proportion of the waste into useful product, categorization of waste types is of great significance to any more detailed study. The population of the world continues to grow, as does the average standard of living, increasing demand for food, water and energy which places increasing pressure on the environment. This paper attempts to parameterize waste generation within a South African context in order provide a theoretical foundation for such work to take place. Organic materials, which includes wood, leaves, grass, food, paper, plastic, cotton, synthetic fabrics, sewage sludge, animal remains, bacteria, any carbohydrates or hydrocarbons. These are all materials sent to landfills (with the exception of metal, ceramics and glass). The Gauteng province was chosen for this preliminary study as it constituted 42% of SA’s waste in 2010 making it by far the country’s biggest waste generator. The types of waste that were particularly targeted in lieu of the downstream research endeavoured were medical waste, plastics, tyres and sewage sludge