Waste in South Africa is growing at a faster pace than the systems meant to stop and manage it. Landfills are filling up fast, while recycling struggles to keep up. The problem is not a lack of activity but lack of alignment.
South Africa already has clear regulatory targets for recycling, set in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations. These regulations require producers to take (financial) responsibility for the collection and recycling of the products they manufacture, with specific targets set for different materials. These targets vary. Some materials, particularly those that are harder to recycle, are assigned lower targets, effectively allowing them to continue being collected and recycled at lower rates.
Waste management servicing sits largely with municipalities, where capacity and resourcing vary between one municipality and the next. This creates an uneven landscape. Households may be willing to separate their waste, but without reliable collection and processing systems, their efforts often lead nowhere. On the other hand, for recycling systems to function efficiently, they depend on a steady supply of large volumes of pre-sorted waste. This interdependence, between households, municipalities and industry, is where the system often breaks down.
Strengthening systems
Municipalities are responsible for waste management, environmental health, and local implementation of recycling collection initiatives. They can strengthen separation-at-source programmes, divert organic waste into composting and partner with waste reclaimer organisations and community enterprises. Supporting informal waste reclaimers with infrastructure, recognition and fair participation is important, given the role they already play in recycling collections.
On the production side, initiatives like the South African Plastics Pact and lobbying by the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation, has led producers to start designing packaging for reuse and recyclability. If the production of new, virgin plastics continues to grow unchecked, our recycling systems will remain under strain, regardless of how efficiently materials are collected.
Recycling, in other words, is not a single action, it is a system of processes, materials, incentives and responsibilities. Where infrastructure, demand and participation are aligned, it can work well. Where they are not, it stalls.
Small-scale projects
There are places where the pieces do come together, albeit at a small scale.
At Alta du Toit School in the Western Cape, a partnership between Polyco, MyPlas and JOB-ABLED has turned recycling into a working system. The school, which supports learners with intellectual disabilities, now hosts a small recycling plant where plastic waste is collected, sorted and prepared for processing. The facility creates employment opportunities for people with disabilities, while offering learners hands-on exposure to the recycling economy. Some school leavers are supported through job shadowing and skills development, creating pathways into formal work. Families are encouraged to contribute recyclable materials, helping to build a wider culture of participation. This is not just a recycling project. It is a system that connects infrastructure, skills development and opportunity, anchored in a community institution.
There are other ways to drive recycling initiatives. Simpler, incentive driven initiatives demonstrate the power of linking recycling to other outcomes that benefit communities. For example, campaigns like Sweethearts directs recycling revenues into purchasing of wheelchairs, while Operation Smile uses revenue generated from recycling bottle caps to fund cleft palate surgeries.
Examples like these make the value of recycling visible and immediate. But these efforts tend to remain small scale unless they are connected to broader systems of collection, processing, demand and wider community benefits like funding school supplies and food purchases, for instance.
Recycling is currently the largest landfill diversion solution for waste plastics and currently diverts about 28% of waste plastics. This figure can only increase if plastic products are designed to be more easily recycled and recycled plastics are used by plastic product producers instead of virgin plastics as much as possible.
