Waste management policy: implications for landfill waste salvagers in the Western Cape

The City of Cape Town Solid Waste Management Department's (CCTSWMD) design of a more formal, integrated and sustainable waste management system is being pursued at the expense of the poor and marginalised. The city's waste management policy aims to improve waste management technology and in so doing eliminate landfill salvaging. This article examines CCTSWMD's policy prohibiting landfill salvaging and the intended and unintended consequences of such a decision on landfill waste salvagers. Given that suitable sites for land filling are scarce and difficult to acquire, costs to create new landfills are extremely high, incineration is too expensive and incompatible with South Africa's environmental standards and the absence of a formalised system for waste separation at source in South Africa, waste recovery at the landfill remains the best option for both meeting waste minimisation goals and the basic needs of the poor. These findings informed the development of an integrated waste management model that is in concert with the policy directives but more importantly, ensures that the now destitute waste salvagers regain some form of income security and human dignity.