A just transition in the informal waste sector is in the offing with the vision of the inclusion of reclaimers in the mainstream economy to create more sustainable jobs.
An estimated 90 000 reclaimers work in South Africa’s informal economy, major concentrations being between 1 500 to 2 500 in Cape Town and Johannesburg having the most at between 8 000 to10 000.
According to a new World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, “Mainstreaming the informal waste sector: Towards an inclusive circular economy in African cities”, released this week, a just transition for the informal waste sector could be approached by borrowing aspects of a just transition for coal miners and applying them to the informal waste sector.
Both these groups include grassroots organisations, informal actors and other invisible but key stakeholders, and both are the most vulnerable in their respective contexts as economic transitions are being explored.
The report said a circular economy approach presented possibilities to rethink and redesign local systems in such a way that they benefit people, nature and the economy.
“An ideal way forward for African cities to realise these benefits is to adopt, support and include existing local livelihood practices, especially the informal ones. This should start with deepening the understanding of reclaimers in the informal waste sector, their current working conditions and how they have benefited – and are benefiting – local systems in Africa,“ it said.
The report calls for investment in and inclusion of reclaimers in the mainstream economy to create more sustainable jobs as well as the inclusion of the informal waste sector’s insights in proceedings across entire material value chains: from design to the end-of-life stage of products and materials.
It also calls for the provision of sufficient support for reclaimers, so that they can organise themselves into recognisable networks of their choice, whether organisations, unions or co-operatives.
In South Africa, the informal waste sector contributes 51% of paper and packaging post-consumer material from landfills as part of the national collection rates in 2017, according to the WWF.
Reclaimers collect materials such as plastic, cardboard, paper, e-waste and metal from various spaces including landfills and illegal dumps, and reintroduce them as secondary raw materials into the economy.
Luyanda Hlatshwayo, who helped to establish the Johannesburg-based non-profit organisation African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO) said, “From the amount of work we are currently able to do daily, using the trucks donated in the Unido (The United Nations Industrial Development Organization) project to collect materials from households, we each make way more than what an average person in an entry-level formal job earns monthly … a reclaimer who is part of the ARO committee and puts in much work earns more than R250 a day.”
Reclaimers working in the same country are paid different rates for their materials and have different levels of daily income. In South Africa, reclaimers in Cape Town got R2/kg for PET (polyethylene terephthalate), whereas those in Johannesburg received R6/kg for the same quantity in December 2021.
In 2017, Africa generated 180 million tons of municipal solid waste. In addition, parts of the continent import pre- and post-consumer materials from other countries, which also contributes to local waste streams. Owing to the lack of sufficient waste management and waste treatment infrastructure, more than 90% of these materials are inadequately managed and end up in uncontrolled landfills, are burnt or leak into the environment.
The situation is expected to worsen under the business-as-usual scenario, where an estimated 516 million tons of post-consumer materials across all waste streams (organic materials, plastics, paper, glass and metal) will be generated across Africa by 2050.
Meanwhile, the Waste Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Roadmap – an initiative of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) that is implemented by the department’s entity, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – highlighted the importance of evidence and skills in shaping the future of South Africa’s waste sector.
The report, launched recently, also highlighted the impact of waste on climate change.
The report showed that in the past year, a total of 60 students were supported on research projects and eight postgraduate students were supported through direct scholarships.
Since 2015, a total of 41 students had successfully graduated from the various waste programmes supported by the Waste RD&I Roadmap.
Professor Linda Godfrey, a manager of the Waste Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) Roadmap Implementation Unit at the CSIR, said, “While the South African waste sector has been slow to adopt alternative waste treatment technologies, it is hoped that these young, enthusiastic graduates will venture out into the waste sector, whether it be working for private industry or government, and help transform the sector from the inside through the application of their knowledge.”
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