Waste management practices among manufacturing organisations in the iLembe Municipal District in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

Manufacturing organisations are responsible for depleting an extensive portion of the earth's renewable resources, as well as contributing to air pollution, water contamination and waste generation. Unsustainable waste management practices exacerbate biodiversity loss, contribute to the ramifications of global warming and endanger public health. Therefore, the aim of the present investigation was to explore the nature and extent to which manufacturing organisations in the Municipal District of iLembe in KwaZulu-Natal embrace sustainable waste management practices. The empirical investigation has adopted a quantitative research design, with a standardised structured questionnaire that was distributed to all manufacturing organisations within the iLembe Municipal District in KwaZulu-Natal, which consisted of 262 manufacturing organisations in total. Due to the relatively small size, the entire target population was surveyed. According to the results of the study, only 70.23 per cent of participants from the 262 manufacturing organisations participated in this study. The data was evaluated with the aid of statistical software, version 27 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The objectives and questions of this research inquiry were achieved. Upon analysis of the data, it was discovered that the majority of respondents at 61% agreed that their organisations waste is recycled in-house. The second highest number of respondents at 60% stated that their organisation re-uses waste to manufacture other products, while 48% of the respondents stated that their organisation incinerates waste. Another key outcome of the study revealed that chemical waste was the most prevalent type of waste generated in the Municipal District of iLembe in KwaZulu-Natal, which is alarming and can be harmful if toxins such as mercury and lead are not properly disposed of, with certain chemicals consisting of high global warming potentials due to their accumulation and persistence in the environment. In addition, the drivers that influence sustainable waste management practices and the barriers that hamper sustainable waste management practices among manufacturing organisations in the iLembe Municipal District in KwaZulu-Natal were assessed and analysed.