With increasing pressure being placed on South Africa’s municipal dumps amid growing waste generation, promoting a circular economy could provide valuable solutions while potentially creating new business opportunities.

Although South Africa has relevant policies in place regarding circularity – such as the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations, which require producers to take responsibility for their packaging waste throughout its life cycle – policy coherence and accountability are needed to ensure successful implementation.

During a recent Creamer Media ‘Waste Management and the Circular Economy Webinar’, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) principal researcher Anton Nahman also underlined the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in facilitating the transition to a circular economy that is just and equitable, arguing that it should be driven by evidence and supported through innovation.

The required STI includes identifying opportunities for circular economy interventions across key sectors; developing new and innovative technologies; and creating new types of business models, materials and processes to enable circularity, particularly innovative solutions that are relevant in a developing-country context.

“We need to look at ways of how we can develop solutions that are tailored to our context and that will allow us to leapfrog the development pathways of the ‘Global North’, which are obviously based on a highly linear economic model.”

Nahman added that a recent study conducted by the CSIR shows how circular economy interventions in a few strategic sectors of the economy could assist in decarbonising economic activity.

“Conservative modelling shows that circular economy measures can reduce emissions in 2050 by around 34%, which should keep emissions to below their 2019 levels, and this speaks particularly to key sectors . . . [such as] agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing and transport.”

In this context, he discussed the Department of Science and Innovation’s (DSI’s) circular economy strategy, which aims to support an inclusive, just and climate-resilient circular economy transition using STI.

Evidence-Based Initiatives
The strategy emphasises the importance of evidence- and demonstration-based initiatives to showcase the benefits of such an economy, and the institutional structures, governance and processes, as well as the social and cultural interventions required to drive the “paradigm shift”.

South Africa’s Circular Economy STI Strategy 2025 prioritises three resource- intensive economic sectors for implementation: mining, agriculture and manufacturing. Within these sectors, four priority areas, or clusters – strategic planning, technology solutions, resources and environment and society – have been identified.

As previously reported in Engineering News & Mining Weekly, the DSI, through the CSIR, launched the South African Circular Minerals and Metals Initiative as the first government- led initiative within these three priority economic sectors, which were identified by government in the STI 2022 to 2032 plan.

The mandate of these initiatives is to drive sector-specific circular economy STI to support their development and fast-track the uptake of circular interventions.

In addition to innovation and evidence- based policies, national industry support programme National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA) strategy and innovation manager Lee-Hendor Ruiters noted the importance of having a coherent policy environment for scaling up circular economy initiatives and leveraging technology and data to inform decision-making.

“Scaling that up will depend on how we create that coherent environment,” he said.

Beyond Band-Aids
Nahman explained that South Africa operates a linear economic system, where population and income growth, along with the introduction of more short-lifespan products onto the market, have led to “ballooning waste volumes”.

He likened addressing waste management only after waste has been generated to “putting a Band-Aid on the problem”.

The circular economy extends beyond the waste sector and involves rethinking and redesigning the entire economic system and moving away from a material- and energy- intensive linear economy that has contributed to increased waste, resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change.

Nahman added that the circular economy presents significant opportunities for meeting commitments related to climate change and sustainable development.

“It really allows us to reduce our reliance on the extraction of primary resources, thereby avoiding resource scarcity and depletion, and also reducing energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Upstream interventions should, thus, be implemented to ensure that products are designed for easy recycling, and to address the fact that recycling is currently both energy intensive and insufficient to keep up with waste volumes.

“By implementing these upstream strategies, the aim is to design waste out of the system and thereby reduce the amount of waste generated which, of course, will, in turn, ease the pressure on our landfills.”

He also warned that South Africa’s heavy reliance on exporting raw materials and importing beneficiated products put the resilience of the economy at risk.

As other countries transition towards circularity – and with the current political and economic climate, where reduced trade with some key historical trade partners could become a reality – demand for the country’s resources may decline.

Nahman, therefore, emphasised the importance of localising production processes along the value chain, citing its significance for economic growth and job creation.

Additionally, Ruiters highlighted the importance of promoting recycling, engaging communities and developing infrastructure to support entrepreneurial opportunities.

He noted the role of material recovery facilities in adding value to waste streams and creating business opportunities for entrepreneurs, adding that circular business models could provide opportunities to extend product life cycles and divert waste from landfills.

Ruiters emphasised that understanding specific value chain needs is crucial when applying circular principles to a business model.

Designing products in a circular and efficient way helps companies to not only reduce their waste but also use materials more efficiently, thereby allowing products to easily enter the recycling value chain.

“That is one of the opportunities that circular design creates for businesses, by also integrating circular design early on in your product life cycle, you can unlock new opportunities,” Ruiters added.

In this context, producer responsibility organisation Petco former CEO Cheri Scholtz said design-related issues in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) products hinder South Africa’s PET recycling system, as not all PET bottles on the market are recyclable.

PET bottles include those used for beverage, home and personal care products, and edible oil bottles and jars, such as those used for peanut butter.

Scholtz explained that about 70% of PET bottles are used in the beverage industry, which, if well designed, are ideal for recycling. However, she identified design-related challenges, including the difficulty of recycling opaque, green and amber bottles, as well as shrink sleeves.

To address this issue, she suggested implementing and enforcing targets that create a “level playing field” for PET and its contaminants, such as polylactic acid and polyvinyl chloride, as well as making product identification compulsory and ensuring quality in collection.

Additionally, she suggested enforcing recycled content targets and introducing them for other plastics while highlighting Petco’s role in developing sustainable value chains, as well as the need for collaboration between industry, government and municipalities.

Founded in 2004, Petco administers EPR schemes on behalf of its members, facilitating and supporting the collection and recycling value chain, guiding packaging design, stimulating end-use markets for recycled material, and conducting various communication and awareness initiatives.

“If I look back over the past 20 years, we’ve come a long way. If I look at how we . . . applied the Petco model – that model of building a sustainable value chain – to liquid board packaging, and how we actually exceeded the target in year two . . . it is . . . testament to how [this] can work. I think that it’s possible to make it work for other materials as well.”

Initiatives

As part of its contribution towards a circular economy, food processing and packaging solutions company Tetra Pak Southern Africa sustainability manager Masale Manoko highlighted the company’s emphasis on innovation to continuously improve its packaging.

He noted that the company has started to replace some fossil-based polymers with bio-based ones made from sugar cane.

The company invested R54-million in recycling infrastructure and processes, and also partnered with players in the plastic recycling sector to manufacture products such as pellets.

“We are not only stopping at funding these projects, we are working actively with all these partners to ensure that we develop circularity for our packages from start to finish.”

As noted in a previous Engineering News & Mining Weekly article, Tetra Pak Southern Africa said it is on track to achieve its 40% nationwide recycling rate for its liquid board packaging products by 2030.

Manoko noted that the current figure is more than 20%, adding that collaboration between the private and public sectors is key to advance the circular economy.