According to Beder (2006), inequality can cause environmental problems because poverty leads to environmental degradation and overexploitation of resources. Second, the principle of equity also takes into account professional inequalities. For example, miners are subject to higher health risks than the rest of the community. Additionally, “ethnicity, race, and color appear to be an important factor in determining who is exposed to environmental burdens” (Beder 2006, p. 82). There are environmental inequalities in South Africa; an example of the principle of equity is the Umlazi landfill which was developed around 1986 in order to dispose of almost all the toxic industrial waste coming from Durban, which affects the residents in terms of health problems and degrades their environment (Leonard & Pelling,