A residential class-based comparative analysis of the intensity of illegal waste dumping in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

: Illegal dumping is a matter of concern particularly to local municipalities which are incapable of handling and managing volumes of waste produced from households. This study used a quantitative research design for fieldwork observation and structured questionnaires across three residential classes to assess the intensity and determinants of illegal waste dumping. Based on residential class (low, medium, and high), we found that the low-income areas had more problems of waste management compared to the medium and high-income residential areas. The low-income residents were without access to municipal waste collection services and opted to dump waste illegally. The Chi-square test showed positive significant relationship between the intensity of illegal waste dumping and several socio-economic variables of the respondents such as household income (12.063), gender (8.031), education (7.471) and age (7.945). We therefore suggest that besides communities taking initiatives such as recycling and composting if waste is not collected, urban stakeholders should be more focused on the highly low-income communities. The study has critical planning implications for sustainable waste management and environmental integrity.