Home 5 Archive 5 Waste economy

18 October 2016

Waste Economy Project

The focus is on supporting investment in alternative waste treatment technologies and those parts of the secondary materials value chain that are economically viable and beneficial for the Western Cape economy. Pursuing such opportunities will allow the Western Cape to best position itself in the growing national and international secondary materials economy.

This Western Cape secondary materials industry is to be based on investments in those parts of the secondary material value chain that are economically viable and beneficial for the Western Cape economy and would allow the Western Cape to best position itself in the growing national and international secondary materials economy.

The Waste Economy Project has adopted a two pronged approach:

  • Development of a policy and regulations tool

  • Enable public and private investment in alternative waste treatment technologies by supporting municipal decision makers with planning and investment decision making for Integrated Municipal Waste Management

  • Develop the waste economy by supporting the private sector investment in building value chains that enable economic value to be derived from waste materials (supply and demand side interventions).

Policy and regulation tool

During the 2014/2015 financial year GreenCape completed a Policy and Legislation Tool to provide assistance to waste management projects in municipalities and in the private sector. The tool was the very first collation of waste management policy/legislation information in South Africa, and provided a rich library of information on municipal processes, different waste technologies and the different applicable legislation to reach environmental compliance.

For more information on the alternative waste treatment guide refer to the website here Note that the tool is currently being updated.

Uptake of Alternative Waste Treatment

Municipalities in South Africa are faced with a number of waste management challenges, including increasing volumes of waste generated, escalating costs of management, decreasing landfill airspace, land availability for new landfills and increasingly stringent legislative requirements to adopt the waste management hierarchy based on the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (NEM:WA, 59 of 2008).

In order to meet these goals, municipalities have to integrate alternative waste management into their waste management systems. To assist municipalities with the uptake of alternative waste treatment (and partnering with the private sector), GreenCape has developed a life cycle based decision support tool to assist municipalities adopt a systems-based approach for the implementation of integrated waste management.

Stellenbosch Municipality was selected as the first case study municipality in the Western Cape municipalities adopt a systems-based approach, addressing the full waste life cycle. The case study is available to view here.