Last week saw environment, forestry & fisheries minister Barbara Creecy publish an amendment to the National Waste Act in the form of draft extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations with 30 days for public consultation.
Once promulgated, the EPRs will enable the state to identify a product, or class of products, specify EPR measures for this product and identify parties responsible for the implementation of waste management reduction measures associated with these products. The EPR will also extend producers’ responsibility for their products along the value chain, from cradle to grave and beyond — using a recognised life cycle assessment process.
Now I know what most readers are thinking: “Great. Just what we need. More regulations.” But if you can suspend your judgment for a few minutes, the regulations merit some discussion of their pros and cons. At this point, the draft regulations have only been developed for the lighting, paper & packaging and electrical & electronic equipment sectors, but the implications are far-reaching. The regulations are designed to combat the estimated 111m tonnes of waste generated every year in SA and boost the waste economy, which currently contributes R24.3bn to our GDP and provides incomes for more than 100,000 formal and informal workers.
Once completed, the EPRs will result in the appointment of producer responsibility organisations (PROs) that will drive sector-based waste minimisation programmes; manage financial arrangements for funds to promote the reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery of waste; drive awareness programmes and innovate new measures to reduce the potential impact of products on health and the environment.
While this may seem to some to be just another financial barrier to individual businesses’ commercial success, the overall potential for GDP growth from this approach is significant. In 2014, the department of science & technology published the waste research, development and innovation (RDI) road map, which assessed 13 different waste streams and estimated that resources worth an additional R17bn per year could be unlocked if they were fully beneficiated.
Additional benefits could be unlocked by placing minimum recycled content amounts on various products, for example, or placing tariffs on the import of virgin material, in so doing enhancing local value chains and reducing balance of payments pressures.
The regulations will build on existing initiatives such as the SA plastics pact, led by the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the SA Plastics Recyclers Organisation, which has set a number of ambitious targets to create a circular economy for plastics in SA by 2025. Here, too, are hidden economic benefits, such as the reduction in the $8bn per annum that the UN Environment Programme estimates plastics pollution costs the world’s fisheries, the maritime trade and tourism industries.
With most major SA retailers and manufacturers already participating in some form of PRO and extensive international experience to draw upon, a great deal of potential exists to foster a new growth sector in the circular economy just when we need it most. The private sector will need to look for innovative solutions to adjust production, communicate with consumers, develop incentives and establish proficiency in a hitherto much-neglected sector.
The difficulty, as with many things in this country, lies in the role of the state. Experience shows that without effective separation at source, up to 90% of materials being processed at municipal material recovery facilities end up going to landfill all the same, at a cost to the taxpayer of roughly R28m/ha.
Certainly, communication campaigns will play an important role in the state’s responsibility towards effective implementation of the EPRs, but I have first-hand experience of how recycling and waste awareness campaigns have resulted in zero change in behaviour from residents. What will be required is a blended approach, where producers, retailers, waste companies and the state work together to develop solutions to unlock growth in this critical sector.
• Maguire holds a master’s degree in global change studies from Wits and has developed green economy solutions for the private sector, NGOs and the state for more than a decade.
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