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Environment Conservation Act, 1989 (Act No. 73 of 1989)

Part IV : Control of Environmental Pollution

20. Waste management

 

1) No person may establish, provide or operate a disposal site without a permit issued by the Minister in terms of subsections (1) to (9).

 

2) A person who wishes to provide or operate a disposal site must apply for a permit referred to in subsection (1) in the prescribed form, supplying such information as may be prescribed.

 

3) The Minister may-
a) issue a permit subject to such conditions as he or she considers fit;
b) alter or cancel any permit or condition in a permit;
c) refuse to issue a permit.

 

4) The Minister may exempt any person or category of persons from having to obtain a permit, subject to such conditions as he or she considers fit.

 

5) The Minister may require further information from the applicant for the purpose of enabling him or her to make a decision on an application.

 

6) The issuing of a waste disposal site permit is subject to-
a) the concurrence of the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry; and
b) the inclusion therein of the conditions contained in a Record of Decision issued by the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry regarding any measures that the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry considers necessary to protect a water resource as defined in the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No. 36 of 1998);
c) In the event of concurrence or conditions not being obtained as contemplated in paragraphs (a) and (b) within a reasonable time the matter shall be referred to the Fair Decision Making and Conflict Management provisions contained in Chapter 4, sections 17 to 22, of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998), by the Minister.

 

7) The Minister must maintain a register in which details of every disposal site for which a permit has been issued shall be recorded.

 

8) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, issue directions with regard to-
a) the control and management of disposal sites in general;
b) the control and management of certain disposal sites or disposal sites handling particular types of waste; and
c) the procedure to be followed before any disposal site may be withdrawn from use or utilized for another purpose.

 

9) Subject to the provisions of any other law, no person shall discard waste or dispose of it in any other manner, except-
a) at a disposal site for which a permit has been issued in terms of this section; or
b) in a manner or by means of a facility or method and subject to such conditions as the Minister may prescribe.

 

10) Anything done in terms of this section by the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry prior to the commencement of the Environment Conservation Amendment Act, 2003, shall be deemed to have been done by the Minister.