Who’s to blame for waste picker’s death?

A general review of the safety and operational management at South Africa’s landfills is needed following the death of a waste picker at the Ennerdale landfill, in Gauteng.

This is according to environmental and landfill engineer Nash Dookhi, who is the KwaZulu-Natal chair at the Institute of Waste Management South Africa. “What I haven’t seen in the media is a detailed investigation into why this tragedy occurred and what could have been done to prevent it,” he says.

Legislation and regulations

Dookhi’s concern is how landfill sites are being managed under applicable legislation and regulations, especially in terms of industrial health and safety.

South African waste is regulated by the National Environmental Management: Waste Act of 2008. This legislation requires that every landfill owner obtains a waste management licence and, in addition to the development, engineering and monitoring of the site, stipulates the requirements for operating and managing the site.

These conditions are also guided and governed by the Minimum Requirements for Waste Disposal by Landfill, from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The general operations require that, on a day-to-day basis, waste that is tipped into the landfill should be shaped (pushed together), compacted and covered. This is known as the “cellular landfilling method”.

Are the requirements being fully implemented?

Dookhi, who has over 20 years of experience in waste management, says that landfill engineering is a complex discipline that considers various factors around landfill stability. These include the types of waste, compaction, moisture content, cover material used, and leachate management.

Properly managed waste is inherently stable because the certain waste types embedded in it, like plastics, cardboard and fibres, act as built-in natural reinforcement. This often provides waste with solidity and an acceptable factor of safety.

“The fact that a collapse would not result from one day’s worth of loose incoming waste suggests a longer-term neglect of the requirements,” says Dookhi.

Are waste pickers even allowed at landfills?

Whether waste pickers are allowed inside a landfill site is not easy to answer.

The Minimum Requirements state: “The Department discourages waste reclamation at landfill sites”, with repossession being denied at hazardous waste sites.

However, if the licence holder opts to allow controlled reclamation at a general waste disposal site, they must seek permission on the application for their waste management licence or by amending an existing permit/licence.

This indicates that waste pickers’ access depends on what is formally allowed in the site operator’s licence and that their activities are effectively managed and controlled.

Regardless, as per the Minimum Requirements and the waste management licence, the responsibility for the safety of any waste pickers rests with the licence holder.

Landfill safety

Site operators are therefore responsible for meeting the daily operational requirements of their landfills. They are also responsible for the safety of the waste pickers onsite.

“We acknowledge that there is a role to be played by the waste pickers to promote the circular economy and further acknowledge that it can be difficult to control pickers eager to reach prime materials in newly arrived waste. We encourage municipalities to provide effective support and management to the sites,” says Dookhi.