WASTE ENERGY WATER BIODIVERSITY Making sustainable development a reality in Cape Town homes A partnership resource published by the City of Cape Town, 2007 Third edition: May 2009 More information available from Environmental Resource Management Department 6th Floor 44 Wale street Cape Town tel: (021) 487 2284 [email protected] www.capetown.gov.za/environment © City of Cape Town, AMATHEMBA Management Consulting, Sustainable Energy Africa ISBN Number 0-9584719-4-0 This handbook is printed on SAPPI Triple Green paper, an environmentally-friendly paper stock made from chlorine-free sugar cane fibre to support sustainable afforestation in South Africa. This publication was compiled and edited by Sustainable Energy Africa and AMATHEMBA Environmental Management Consulting. Funding and inputs by the following: Acknowledgements This handbook, based on AMATHEMBA Environmental Management Consulting’s Home Environmental Management Guide Book was developed on behalf of the City of Cape Town by AMATHEMBA and Sustainable Energy Africa, with graphics and design by Dotted Line Design. The book is a tangible example of cooperative governance, funded by the City of Cape Town, the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning and the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, with additional support from the DANIDA Urban Environmental Management (UEM) Program. Compiling a book of this nature requires research, comment and advice from a variety of sources. We acknowledge with thanks all who have contributed to the information contained in this book. AMATHEMBA Environmental Management Consulting: Barry Wiesner, Tamara North, Stephen Davey City of Cape Town Strategy and Planning: Environmental Resource Management Department City of Cape Town Utility Services: Water, Solid Waste and Electricity Departments Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town: Kevin Winter Development Action Group: Fikiswa Mahote Dotted Line Design: Doret Ferreira, Merylle Cornelson Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town Enviro Sense: Susanne Dittke Eskom Fairest Cape Association LP Gas Safety Association Paraffin Safety Association: Matt Nondwana Programme for Basic Energy and Conservation in Southern Africa Steadfast Greening: Grace Stead Sustainable Energy Africa: Megan Anderson, Mark Borchers, Leila Mahomed, Audrey Dobbins The Greenhouse Project: Dorah Lebelo Foreword by the Mayor of Cape Town The threats of climate change to our environment and to our economy are well understood across the world. We are also becoming increasingly aware of the limited availability of natural resources and fossil fuels. The water shortages experienced in Cape Town regularly remind us that we cannot take this resource for granted. Our repeated electricity outages are also a foretaste of the approaching global shortage in fossil fuels. In the decades ahead, with growing demand and diminishing supply, fossil fuels are going to become an unaffordable means of producing electricity. Cape Town is famous for its floral kingdom, but this is also under threat from ongoing development and environmental pressures associated with air pollution and climate change. The City of Cape Town is working towards making the services we provide as sustainable as possible. But to achieve some of the challenging targets we have set for ourselves in terms of energy, water, waste and biodiversity conservation, the City needs the people of Cape Town to help. The SMART Living Handbook contains a series of practical steps that households in Cape Town can take to make their homes safer and save them money, while working to reduce their impact on our precious environment. These steps have been well researched by experts and have been shown to make a difference. The steps outlined are simple to achieve and can easily become part of everyday life. The SMART Living Handbook also provides information on key environmental resource issues facing us globally, and within our city. The basis for the handbook was provided by AMATHEMBA Environmental Management Consulting’s Home Environmental Handbook and Sustainable Energy Africa’s The Energy Book, written and developed by Sarah Ward. Our City departments have ensured that information provided is up to date and provides a good overview of City activities. The Western Cape provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning and national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry have both been cosponsors of the book, demonstrating the importance of cooperative governance when it comes to tackling the substantial environmental problems confronting us today. I am sure that all involved in the evolution of this environmental handbook will be proud to see how it has grown. It is set to lead the way for other cities in South Africa and become an international example of city sustainability in practice. We at the City of Cape Town encourage all users to enjoy and make use of this colourful and informative book. These solutions will help us protect our natural heritage, and they will leave our economy better prepared to face a global energy crisis when it arrives. If this happens, then we will have succeeded in making the City of Cape Town’s key objective of infrastructure led economic growth a truly sustainable programme. Helen Zille Mayor of Cape Town SMART LIVING i handbook Visit www.capetown.gov.za/environment for future updates, other language versions and a range of other environmental resources and publications. SMART ii LIVING handbook Contents Foreword by the Mayor of Cape Town ........................................i INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................v WASTE .............................................................................................1 Waste in our city ............................................................................7 Waste in your home ....................................................................13 Practical steps..............................................................................16 Contacts and resources..............................................................29 ENERGY .........................................................................................31 Energy in our city .........................................................................36 Energy in your home .................................................................. 44 Practical steps..............................................................................52 Contacts and resources..............................................................70 WATER ...........................................................................................73 Water in our city ..........................................................................78 Water in your home .................................................................... 83 Practical steps..............................................................................86 Contacts and resources..............................................................96 BIODIVERSITY ................................................................................97 Biodiversity in our city ...............................................................102 Biodiversity in your home or neighbourhood .........................109 Practical steps............................................................................ 111 Contacts and resources ........................................................... 118 SMART LIVING iii handbook SMART iv LIVING handbook INTRODUCTION Cape Town - eKapa - Kaapstad - is South Africa’s Mother City. It is also the oldest city in the country, the legislative capital of South Africa and an important centre of trade and tourism. Hours after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech from the balcony of the Cape Town City Hall – heralding the beginning of a new era for South Africa. But Cape Town is “Our biggest challenge in probably best known for its natural beauty – Table Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Flats, where a unique this new century is to take plant life exists. Fynbos, or ’fine bush’ is a shrubby, evergreen vegetation well known for its characteristic proteas. It occurs an idea that seems abstract nowhere else but along the Cape coastal belt, its adjacent mountains and some isolated inland mountain tops. Cape Town – sustainable development – is home to about 3 000 indigenous plant species. 190 of these are found nowhere else in the world. and make it into a daily reality Although Cape Town is renowned for its beauty and biodiversity, it faces many grave environmental resource for all the world’s people.” challenges. Local development and pollution have destroyed natural habitats, placing many unique plants and the rare frogs and insects living amongst them under threat. Global Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, March 2001. warming, driven by vehicle emissions and power generation will have a severe impact on all life in our city. Water resources are increasingly scarce and landfill space is rapidly filling up. Cape Town is also characterised by huge differences between people in terms of wealth. Some Capetonians use more water, electricity and petrol and generate more waste than the average American, while others live in households with a single tap, still using dangerous fuels such as paraffin for their cooking. Making a difference Energy, water, waste and our biodiverse environment