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10 November 2025
groundWork Launches Hazardous Waste Report
Civil Society and affected communities escalate their call for a national hazardous waste strategy from government!!
Johannesburg, South Africa, 10 November 2025. groundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa is set to launch a seminal report on hazardous waste on Wednesday 12 November 2025. The report titled, Hazardous Waste (Mis) Management in South Africa: Mapping Primary Areas of Concern provides snapshots of a selection of hazardous waste categories and investigates the maladaptive means through which they are managed, to the detriment of local communities. It addresses landfills and dumpsites, mineral waste management, health care risk waste (HCRW) incineration, and hazardous waste co-processing in cement kilns. Where possible, each category of waste and its management is framed through corresponding areas of struggle by affected communities. This is done in an effort to amplify the voices of those with lived experience of a degraded environment as a direct result of hazardous waste and inadequate waste management methods.
To date, the environmental, climate and human health impacts of the hazardous waste sector has been poorly studied, especially in South Africa where monitoring and reporting efforts have been few and far between. South Africa’s waste is a primary contributor to sectoral emissions on the continent, ranking second. In 2023 South Africa contributed 8% of waste emissions in Africa, after Nigeria at 15%, followed by Algeria, Egypt and Morocco, each contributing 7% (Sama & Bérenger, 2023). No equivalent aggregated emissions data exist for hazardous waste.
From production, to use and disposal, hazardous waste materials have a range of impacts depending on their characteristics and properties. These impacts are covered in the report for each of the hazardous waste categories, and the means through which they are managed.
South Africa does not have a clear toxic waste strategy, and this has resulted in various injustices in different corners of the country. Thirty years after Thor Chemicals was exposed for importing mercury contaminated toxic waste and operating a sub-standard recycling plant which polluted local water and resulted in the deaths of workers, the mercury contaminated toxic waste has only just recently been removed for safe treatment and the site itself remains largely contaminated. Both Government and Thor Chemicals previously abdicated their responsibilities in this regard until civil society mobilizing forced them to fulfil their national mandate. This is but one example of the toxic waste legacy that South Africa is dealing with.
The launch of the Hazardous Waste Report will take place as part of a much-needed meeting and engagement between different stakeholders within the waste sector. The meeting’s main purpose is to link communities that are experiencing injustices from hazardous waste to build solidarity among them; sharing experiences and knowledge of the toxic waste issues by experts, community people, and activists.
The gathering will also highlight the challenges faced by communities that have toxic waste dumped in or adjacent to areas where they live. It will also bring to the fore, common knowledge and understanding of what types of toxics (hazardous) waste is imported and exported.
Over the years, groundWork has maintained a National Waste Campaign and led civil society efforts for a National Waste Act that was promulgated in 2008. groundWork has helped expose a series of scandals concerning incinerator operators, supported action to close down polluting medical waste incinerators and forced the transition to less harmful non-burn technologies for health care risk waste.
More recently poorly managed toxic dumpsites such as Midrand, Shongweni, DCLM and Aloes have sparked public health outcries in neighbouring communities. Industrial production in the Highveld, South Durban, the Vaal triangle, Richards Bay, Pinetown, Marikana, Soweto and Pietermaritzburg are some of the places that experience industrial toxic stench and contamination from dirty production.
In some instances, waste is incinerated in cement kilns or industrial incinerators and people living nearby suffer as these processes result in air and water pollution which later affects communities.
From asbestos mining waste to Sasol’s tar pits, from ArcelorMittal’s unlined metallurgical waste dumpsites to Eskom’s unlined coal ash dumps, from the radioactive gold uranium laced dumpsites around Johannesburg to the un-rehabilitated mining sites throughout South Africa, and the burning of toxic waste in incinerators and cement kilns we are still faced with a current and toxic waste legacy that has to be addressed. Urgently!
The gathering further intends to link communities, activists and government actors who have a role on toxic waste issues in South Africa. The meeting will provide a platform for affected communities to share their struggles and engage with other communities who face similar challenges in their areas so that they may begin to act in solidarity with the aim of resolving challenges.
The meeting will cover several struggles that are currently taking place in different parts of South Africa where toxic landfills, incineration of toxic waste in cement kilns, trade in toxic waste, legacy mining waste, asbestos, acid mine drainage, gold dumps, manganese, and coal ash dams occur – to name a few.
Details
Venue: Elijah Barayi Centre, Midrand
Date: Wednesday 12 November 2025
Time: 09:00 – 12:00
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