AfriForum starts annual national landfill site audit on positive note

AfriForum kicked off its national landfill site audit at the Greater Tzaneen Municipality in Tzaneen today. The civil right organisation also crowned the landfill site as the best municipal landfill site for 2016 (according to AfriForum’s report).

AfriForum once again audited the land fill site this year and awarded it with 100%. The audit was done according to minimum requirements that landfill sites must adhere to in terms of legislation.

“This landfill site is completely fenced off with electric fences, has a weigh bridge and security at the gate. It even has a major compost project going. It is encouraging that there still are some landfill sites that are being managed according to such high standards. We hope that other municipalities will do the same this year. It is important for us to give praise where it is due,” says Chris Boshoff, Project Coordinator at AfriForum.

The Tzaneen landfill site should have closed already in 2010 as a result of a lack of air space, but thanks to effective compacting, innovative management and recycling of 200 tonnes of garbage per month, the lifespan of the landfill site was prolonged by another 20 years. Moreover, the landfill site saves R7 million annually through recycling. All machinery are in good working order and garbage is compacted daily.

“According to applicable legislation, such as the National Environmental Management Act: Waste (Act No 59 of 2008), a landfill site must adhere to specific requirements. These include factors such as access control, illegal dumping, fire regulations, fences and rehabilitation. No medical waste may be present on any landfill site defined as a general site. AfriForum reworked these requirements into 33 questions, which it uses to perform the landfill site audit,” explains Boshoff.

In the next few weeks AfriForum will audit landfill sites in those areas where it has established branches. The results will be compiled in a report to be sent to Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs.

“We are grateful for the Department’s cooperation in this regard and that it made provincial waste management officers available for our audits,” Boshoff concludes.

AfriForum has already identified 11 sites across South Africa (at least one per province) as priority cases in cooperation with the Department. Two of these – Heatherley and Libanon – are situated in Gauteng and AfriForum will continue to apply pressure to bring these up to standard before the end of 2017.

82% of the 83 landfill sites audited in 2016 did not adhere to the minimum standards.

Support AfriForum’s landfill site audit: SMS the name of your town to 45354 (R1).