Urgent action is required to combat plastic pollution and its detrimental impacts on human health, the economy and the environment, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has said.

On June 5 – World Environment Day – Creecy visited two recycling plants in Cape Town that are supported through producer responsibility organisations in an effort to gain insights into the roles that extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes are playing in plastic recycling.

The two recycling plants, Waste Want, in Kraaifontein, and CRDC SA RESIN8, in the Blackheath industrial area of Cape Town, are involved in different aspects of the recycling value chain.

Waste Want employs 200 people and diverts 1 000 t of plastic waste from landfills every month. CRDC SA RESIN8 is a site where plastic is mixed and converted into an aggregate modifier for the construction industry. The company currently processes 450 kg of waste a day and aims to reach 610 t a month when it reaches full production.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), more than 2.5-million tonnes of plastic is produced yearly in South Africa. Poor waste management practices mean that as much as half of post-consumer plastic is not properly disposed of and risks leaking into the environment.

Last week, at the Second Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC2) on Plastic Pollution in Paris, France, a total of 175 nations, including South Africa, committed once again to developing an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, by the end of 2024.

“In my view, such an international legally binding agreement aims to bring about greater accountability, cooperation and innovation between government, industry, extended producer schemes and waste reclaimers to address the plastic pollution problem. In South Africa, the negotiating process is already bringing about greater agreement collaboration between all stakeholders as they work to identify achievable goals to ensure plastic waste and pollution is effectively addressed,” Creecy said.

South Africa is faced with significant waste management challenges. These include poor landfill practices, sporadic household waste collection, and high levels of illegal dumping in many parts of the country.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s (DFFE’s) EPR schemes for paper and packaging are aimed at diverting waste from landfill sites. Last year, more than 1.5-million tonnes of paper and packing was diverted from landfill through recycling, recovery, and treatment.

Creecy said that the DFFE was strengthening compliance and enforcement measures, especially against “free riders” that undermine collective efforts to address waste management challenges.

The department’s recycling enterprise support programme has, in the past six years, supported 56 start-ups, emerging small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs), and cooperatives operating within the waste sector, providing more than R300-million in financial support, creating 1 558 jobs and diverting more than 200 000 t of waste from landfills.

“To support municipalities, our department will focus on improving cleanliness in other provincial capitals as part of the re-invigorated presidential good green deeds programme. Here in the Western Cape, we will be focusing on the broader Cape Flats region, where many formal and informal settlements have inadequate waste removal and plastic leaches into rivers and eventually into the sea,” Creecy said.

Through the Expanded Public Works Programme, the DFFE is promising work opportunities to 2 000 women, youth and persons with disabilities in each province, to support the cleaning and greening of provincial capitals by assisting in litter picking in prioritised streets, clearing illegal dumps, planting trees, and promoting recycling services.

This is being complemented by 32 waste enterprises that have been supported to increase recycling of construction and demolition waste, plastic, packaging and other waste streams.

Creecy noted that, this year, the DFFE was again partnering with the United Nations Environmental Programme to raise public awareness about climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution by observing World Environment Day under the theme of “Beat Plastic Pollution”.

“Together we are calling on all citizens to observe this environment month by finding creative and innovative ways to remove plastic pollution from our communities, so we care for our environment,” Creecy said.