Case study

El municipio de Drakenstein se encuentra dentro del distrito de Cape Winelands, en la provincia sudafricana de Western Cape. En 2011 tenía una población de 251.262 habitantes. El municipio tiene una superficie total de 1.538 kilómetros cuadrados en el valle del río Berg, al oeste de las cordilleras de Boland. Según el municipio de Drakenstein, “cada semana se atiende una media de 42.000 puntos de servicio de recogida de basura y se han eliminado 84.150 toneladas de residuos sólidos en el vertedero de residuos sólidos de Wellington”.

Los municipios sudafricanos se enfrentan a un aumento de los problemas de gestión de residuos. “El crecimiento de la población, la urbanización y el aumento de los ingresos han dado lugar a un incremento de la generación de residuos, aumentando así la presión sobre los municipios en términos de prestación de servicios e infraestructuras de gestión de residuos, incluidos los vertederos”. En medio de estos desafíos, a los municipios se les presentan a menudo falsas soluciones para abordar la crisis de la gestión de residuos, las que son soluciones solamente soluciones superficiales, que no abordan el problema en su origen. Una de estas soluciones tecnológicas rápidas es la incineración de residuos para obtener energía (WTE).

León Cortés está localizado en la provincia de San José, Costa Rica y compone junto con los cantones Tarrazú y Dota a la Zona de Los Santos, una región 100% basada en la economía agrícola reconocida a nivel mundial por la producción de café, aguacate y frutas de altura. Según el Censo Nacional del año 2022, León Cortés tiene una población aproximada de 13.553 habitantes, mientras que la Zona de los Santos en general
cuenta con 40.727 habitantes siendo una región pequeña en densidad poblacional.

En los últimos 10 años el escenario de la Gestión Integral de Residuos en Costa Rica ha sido un tema complejo pues se habla de la crisis sanitaria en el país, los desechos no valorizables actualmente se manejan en rellenos sanitarios y esta situación ha provocado que las tecnologías de co-incineración de residuos sean una opción promocionada ante la posible crisis sanitaria y ambiental. Esta situación ha puesto en vilo a la comunidad de León Cortés, puesto que los números no calzan y se prevé que el cantón pueda convertirse en una zona de sacrificio, pues será el destino de toda la basura de al menos el Gran Área Metropolitana del país. Una situación agravante, pues establecería un tipo de contaminación con la cual la región rural y agrícola no está acostumbrada a lidiar.

Barueri es un municipio del Estado del Estado de Sao Paulo ubicado al oeste de la región metropolitana. Debido a la alta carga de impacto ambiental de la zona, está clasificada como “zona con saturación severa” dada la existencia de una planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales de 17 millones de persona; una planta de tratamiento de residuos espaciales; un vertedero público, y la destrucción de la Laguna de Carapicuíba.

Zero waste is both a goal and a plan of action. The goal is to ensure resource recovery and protect scarce natural
resources by ending waste disposal in incinerators, dumps, and landfills. The plan encompasses waste reduction, composting, recycling and reuse, changes in consumption habits, and industrial redesign. But just as importantly, zero waste is a revolution in the relationship between waste and people. It is a new way of thinking that aims to safeguard the health and improve the lives of everyone who produces, handles, works with, or is affected by waste—in other words,
all of us.

There is no dearth of women environmental leaders in Asia Pacific. In the past decades, the region has become host to many impactful environmental initiatives and campaigns spearheaded by women leaders who not only dared to dream of a better future, but also rolled their sleeves up to ensure that the better future they dreamed of would become a reality.

But while there is general awareness that women play crucial roles in driving societal changes, exactly what they have done, and how massive their impact has been are often told sparingly, if at all. The spotlight is seldom shone on women leaders. And when it is, they are either made to share it with their male counterparts, or the spotlight shone upon them does not shine bright enough to adequately highlight their impact.

Hence, this publication.

Vision and Grit: Exceptional Zero Waste Women in the Asia Pacific Region was conceived out of the realization that we have yet to truly take stock of the invaluable contributions of women leaders in Asia Pacific, particularly in the Zero Waste movement. It features 14 women leaders across the region whose initiatives have made a huge impact in their communities and have served as an inspiration for others to do the same. Because of their work, thousands of lives have been changed for the better, progressive policies and regulations have been instituted at various levels, enabling conditions for more sustainable options have been jump started, and Zero Waste models have been developed. Admittedly, so much still needs to be done at various fronts, but so much has also been achieved. Change is actually happening, and it is hugely thanks to our women leaders.

Pore over the pages of this book and learn about some of the women who have helped make the world we live in a better place, and be inspired by their compassion, determination, and grit. Read their stories and understand their motivations, and be amazed and grateful that they stood up for what they believed in when they did, and continued the fight even when things were difficult. Our current realities may still be filled with challenges, but it is less so because women of character and strength live among us.

In 2012, the Drakenstein municipality signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Interwaste, a waste management company, to construct a municipal waste incinerator to address the municipalities waste issues.

The resistance to this municipal incinerator involved several key actors, this included the Drakenstein Environmental Watch (DEW), Wellington Association Against the Incinerator (WAAI), groundWork (gW), South African Waste Pickers Association (SAWPA), GAIA, community residents, vulnerable groups that
would have been affected by the project, water experts, engineers and legal clinics were just some of the agents that supported the resistance of the municipal waste incinerator.

Once faced with waste management challenges exacerbated by tourism, two communes in Hoi An, Vietnam — Cam Thanh and Cham Islands (Tan Hiep Commune) — have become the faces of Zero Waste through the collaboration of stakeholders from the government, community organizations, farmers’ associations, businesses, and tourism associations.

Waste pickers from South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Morocco and Zambia have demonstrated the common need for official recognition from national and municipal governments, better working conditions, PPE, improved payment for their recovered materials and collection and processing service, and an end to social stigmatisation.

The experience of organising shows that these needs are achievable through building representative organisations that will ensure that their voices are heard in negotiations with governments and demonstrate their value to society.

This requires waste pickers to work collaboratively and embed the principles of democracy, equality and environmental justice in their organised structures. Furthermore, municipalities and national governments need to recognise the value that waste pickers play in diverting waste from the landfills, encouraging recycling where materials re-enter the economy and addressing poverty by providing an income for individuals that have been excluded from the formal economy.

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