Community Resident’s Opinions and Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Waste Management and Recycling Potential in the Umkhanyakude and Zululand District Municipalities in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa

Despite new environmental laws and regulations in South Africa during the last two decades, especially around municipal solid waste management, there is little emphasis towards waste minimization through recycling. Whereas most waste management research in South Africa has focused on urban municipal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2017-10, Vol.9 (10), p.1835
Main Authors: Dlamini, Bonginkosi, Rampedi, Isaac, Ifegbesan, Ayodeji
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Environmental law
Environmental legislation
Environmental regulations
Household wastes
Households
Landfills
Management services
Municipal solid waste
Municipal waste management
Municipalities
Recycling
Rural areas
Solid waste management
Solid wastes
Sustainability
Waste management
Waste management industry
Waste materials
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Summary:Despite new environmental laws and regulations in South Africa during the last two decades, especially around municipal solid waste management, there is little emphasis towards waste minimization through recycling. Whereas most waste management research in South Africa has focused on urban municipalities, not much is known regarding the effectiveness of waste management services and recycling challenges in rural areas. This paper reports on the effectiveness of waste management practices from the perspective of community residents in selected rural districts of the KwaZulu-Natal province. A random sample comprised of 333 community residents was selected for questionnaire-administered interviews. Based on the opinions and perceptions of respondents, the provision of waste management services is generally inadequate. Apart from the successful collection of domestic solid wastes (66.7%) from households by municipalities, the collection of recyclable waste materials from illegal waste dumps (75%) and from households (68.7%) are not being adequately provided. Thus, levels of dissatisfaction regarding municipal collection services are very high (97.3%) amongst respondents. Furthermore, systematic recycling initiatives that involve communities are largely non-existent and most (96.7%) respondents lack relevant technical knowledge on waste recycling and how it can be carried out effectively through waste segregation at source and other processes.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su9101835