Hugh Tyrrell is director of GreenEdge, a marketing communications and behaviour change consultancy specialising in the circular economy.
RECENT reports of childrens’ deaths in townships due to toxic pesticides have shone a light on inadequate municipal waste services to residents living in lower-income areas. Here, uncollected household and other waste piles up in open spaces, attracting vermin and rats.
To get rid of them, residents turn to what may be available at their local spaza shop – often cheap but highly dangerous chemicals, with fatal results.
Shifting perceptions of waste
Over the past few decades, there’s been a shift in how waste management is perceived which has led it away from its primary purpose – to provide a clean and healthy environment for citizens.
The circular economy approach has placed a focus on the commercial value of waste materials. In circular thinking, waste materials are seen as commodities or elements which flow through an economic system and are kept within the production and consumption process by, for example, recovery, recycling, and reuse.
This systemic view has changed the way waste is managed and is embedded in the government’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations.
It is particularly well suited to countries where waste services operate efficiently and regularly for all. However for millions of citizens in our country, waste services are often neither efficient nor regular, which leads to negative health impacts.
How can circular economy thinking and practice also be put to good use in addressing public health issues in South Africa’s waste space?
How can circular economy thinking address public health issues in South Africa’s waste space?
A precedent may have been set in how the plight of waste pickers has been
remedied.
Based on sound academic research, and on advocacy by non-profits and other organisations, lobbying directly with government had positive results.
Municipalities are now required to integrate pickers in waste operations, and they must be paid for their work through PROs (Product Responsibility Organisations) under the EPR regulations.
Links between waste and ill-health
Could the process that brought social justice for pickers, also work to address public health issues in under-served communities? If so, research work would first be needed to establish links between inequitable waste services and ill-health in surrounding residents.
Initial research through Stellenbosch University and other partners under the DSI/NRF/CSIR SARCHI Chair of Waste and Society is showing that this may indeed be the case. More research projects in other contexts are following to build a strong argument to advocate for efficient waste service provision.
During a PRO roadshow recently, municipalities indicated they are keen to work with PROs and receive their support. Bureaucratic red tape holding up these kinds of public/private partnerships is being overcome.
Collaboration amongst research, advocacy, PRO, municipal and community actors is growing and will help expand circular thinking beyond economics to resolve urgent social issues as well.
