In light of the risks associated with improper waste management practices, waste is governed by several pieces of legislation for the purpose of protecting human health, preventing pollution and ecological degradation as well as to secure ecological sustainable development.   The National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008...

Large amounts of plastic waste are dumped across the world and can even be found near remote mountains such as Mount Everest and in the deepest oceans. As a result, microplastics have become a global issue which presents a risk to human health. When plastic...

The goal of sustainable development is to meet the needs of today of the current generation without compromising the needs of the future generation. In today’s world, development is an on-going factor that tends to occur on land which is not utilised or has been...

The landscape within South Africa and globally is becoming increasingly urbanised and developed. The development of previously open space that served as areas from which flow to downstream watercourses originated has now been converted to hardened surface with stormwater flows typically channelled to certain portions,...

Clean drinking water is a necessity which is not always equally accessible to everyone as a result of either location, social status, poverty or climate change as examples. Due to the inaccessibility, various communities utilise unreliable water sources to fulfil daily needs where polluted water...

Wetlands are known to provide several Ecosystem Services (ESS) to the direct natural environment and surrounding human communities. In South Africa, wetlands around the country have been degraded by human induced activities such as agriculture and residential development. Recent figures provided by Working for Wetlands...

In November 2013 the Minister of the then Water and Environmental affairs promulgated GN 921 in terms of the waste act which contained the List of Waste Management Activities that have, or are likely to have, a detrimental effect on the environment.   On 11 October 2017,...

As a developing country, several growth expansions form part of the day-to-day activities in South Africa. Due to the continuous expansion, selective residential areas are being rezoned into business hotspots where extensive motivation, as well as implication assessments in terms of possible traffic and noise...

Atmospheric Emissions Licenses (AEL’s) are obligatory under the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act 39 of 2004 (AQA) for activities that result in atmospheric emissions which have a significant negative environmental impact, listed in GN 893 of November 22, 2013.   For an AEL application process, either...

February was a month committed to climate change as it saw the Climate Change Bill being formally tabled in Parliament on 18 February 2022 by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment. The iteration of the Bill was first published for information in October 2021,...