Hon Minister and Deputy Minister in absentia, Chairperson and hon members, I am speaking on behalf of my colleague, the hon Ms Ferguson, who has leave of absence.
Cope, by and large, supports the Bill and places great emphasis on the need for a cleaner, safer, and well-managed society, as provided for in the National Environmental Management: Waste Amendment Bill.
Cope further supports certain aspects under the Bill with respect to provincial provisions and powers, such as the inclusion of the provincial departments responsible for waste management, in addition to their role in and requirement to compile an industry waste management plan.
Waste management has become part of the current global health management matrix, including areas of job creation, reuse and recycling technology, spatial land planning, research and development programmes and global best practice. Ethiopia was recently recognised for installing technology for capturing methane gas from their landfill sites. Private companies have managed to recycle and create energy that could be connected to the main electricity grid.
This has helped to create employment and skills training, and some of the profits accruing from this industrial development are being used to rehabilitate the lives of the vagrants and poor families that live on landfill sites.
The history of landscape architecture is worth having a look at. There is a better practice or recycling option for certain types of waste that are no longer acceptable at the landfills. This reduces the landfill burden and at the same time encourages the use of the new systems of zero-waste landscaping solutions in global best practices for industrial, hazardous, commercial, domestic and individual waste.
We believe recycling benefits have to do with the energy saved when we recycle. Established garbage-handling firms and machinery are very sophisticated. Successful bidders direct the recycling pathways for various items.
The focus should also be on vigorous, continued education on the various types of waste materials, how society can be informed about participating in waste management awareness projects and how they can turn waste into beneficiation.
Cope believes the Bill opens the way for more attention to be paid to encompassing the broader issues and parameters that impact on health, safety and hygiene; environmental awareness; skills training; rehabilitation of those members of society who work on these sites; decent work and reward programmes; good governance; issues of spatial town planning; new energy sources; and funding for new businesses.
Given some of the highlights mentioned above, Cope believes the introduction of this Bill is a step in the right direction. We support the Bill. [Applause.]