Waste license south africa
NEMWA obligates that the notice listing the waste management activities must specify if a waste management licence is compulsory for the specific activity or, if not, the requirements or standards that oversee the activity apply. Listed waste management activities that are excused from licensing requirements must conform to the standard which has been set.
The licensing requirement is relevant to a variety of listed waste management activities including recycling, the storage of waste; treatment of waste; recovery, disposal of waste; and the construction or closure of associated infrastructure and facilities.
The list contains Category A and B activities, which are distinguished by the threshold and regulates the environmental assessment procedure. If the authorisation applied for is with reference to an activity listed in Category A, a Basic Assessment Process must be completed to obtain Environmental Authorisation for the activity.
A Basic Assessment is applicable where the environmental impact is defined in scope and well understood. A full EIA is applicable where the duration of environmental impacts and potential scope is not well recognised, or is presumed to be significant. The Minister is the licensing authority for international obligations, hazardous waste, activity that occurs in more than one authority or an activity executed by a statutory body or a provincial environmental authority.
Hazardous waste is handled nationally, where general waste is operated provincially. The compliance with licenses will be monitored by national Environmental Management Inspectors EMIs for which the minister is the licensing authority. Every single person of our total population of 57 million generates up to 2,5 kilograms of waste per day, on average, depending on his or her level of income.
The disposal of such waste at properly licensed and regulatory compliant sanitary landfills is generally accepted as being a safe and economical option throughout the world. South Africans generate roughly 54,2 million tons of general municipal, commercial, and industrial waste per year. Hazardous waste types include mercury containing, asbestos containing, brine, fly ash, waste oils, sewage sludge and materials considered as miscellaneous waste.
These hazardous wastes generate a wide range of toxins that are hazardous to the environment and human life, and need to be carefully treated according to strict hazardous waste regulations. The reality, on the other hand, is that our few remaining landfill sites are filling up and approaching closure at a rapid and increasing rate, and we are not replacing them with new landfills or implementing viable alternative waste disposal or recovery solutions.
Sanitary landfilling is a generally accepted method of waste disposal throughout the world as being an economical and safe option, in the absence of economically viable alternatives. As the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa IWMSA , we have also witnessed a serious decline in the standard of landfill operation and management throughout South Africa, particularly at municipal level, which in turn creates a domino effect and contributes to the dwindling capacity and eventual closure of these facilities.
Not only do the majority of South African municipalities not comply with their regulatory obligations in terms of the operation of their landfills, but also with the gazetted Norms and Standards for the development of such facilities. Generally, it will take any municipality at least 5 years to obtain a waste licence, and an additional 12 months for the construction of a new landfill facility, without any public opposition to such a facility, which the City of Cape Town and various other municipalities have learned over the past 20 years and are still learning.
It can be said that South Africa is at least 15 years behind Europe in implementing the required resource recovery systems, which would create economically viable businesses and employment. Various municipal and hazardous waste streams have significant calorific value and could be utilised in the generation of renewable energy, alleviating pressure on conventional power generation facilities, while at the same time providing part of a solution to the landfill crisis in South Africa.
In reality, however, it will take any private or public entity at least 10 years to licence and construct a large scale Waste to Energy facility in South Africa.
The IWMSA has been highlighting these issues for years, and pleading with the regulatory authorities to take this crisis seriously. It is clear that simply releasing more legislation as a response to the crisis will not yield satisfactory results.
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