South Africa’s waste crisis is impossible to ignore. Tyres dumped on the edge of towns, overflowing landfills and toxic fires are daily reminders that we are not coping. The county’s waste crisis is once again under the spotlight, with the review of the National Waste Management Strategy now under way.
The problem is not just waste. It is a failure of planning, funding and leadership.
At the heart of the issue is the National Waste Management Strategy. This is not a minor document. It is a legal requirement under the National Environmental Management: Waste Act. The strategy is supposed to guide how waste is reduced, collected, recycled and safely disposed of. Done properly, it could unlock a circular economy, create jobs and help the South African government meet its duty, under Section 24 of the Constitution, to provide a healthy environment for all.
Yet, the National Waste Management Strategy 2020 failed. The Department’s own review earlier this year shows how badly. Of 67 outcomes, only three delivered concrete results. Ten showed some progress. The other 54 had absolutely no practical, tangible outcome. What counted as “success” were consultations, social media posts and policy launches — not cleaner streets or more recycling.
The review process now under way risks producing another hollow document. It is being rushed through in eight months rather than the 18 to 20 months the 2019 review required. Without intervention, the National Waste Management Strategy 2025 will repeat the same mistakes.
The problems come into sharp focus when looking at the waste tyre crisis. South Africa generates more than 250,000 tonnes of used tyres every year. Tyres leach poisonous chemicals into soil and water, and they fuel dangerous fires. They are overflowing in forgotten tyre depots and dumped in riverbeds and sports fields.
Levy
A levy on new tyres has collected more than R5-billion since 2017. Less than half of this has reached the Waste Bureau, the state body responsible for the management of waste tyres. The Waste Bureau has failed to build a sustainable system. A culture of illegal dumping has filled that gap.
Notably, there has been no discernible input from the bureau — the body responsible for nearly 10% of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s budget – at the National Waste Management Strategy review meetings with stakeholders.
Funding is the first fault line. Taxes and levies collected specifically for environmental purposes disappear into the general fiscus, with no guarantees for waste projects. Fragmentation is the second weakness. Extended Producer Responsibility regulations were meant to force industries to take responsibility for their waste. Instead, they created multiple overlapping industry bodies, each with conflicting aims. None has the authority to set standards or enforce compliance.
Data is the third weakness. The State of Waste Report and Sawis, the national database, contain glaring errors. In some cases, numbers are out by factors of 10 or even 100. For tyres, official figures have been stuck at around 170,000 tonnes per year since 2019. Independent studies put the true number closer to 260,000 tonnes. Without credible data, the state cannot set targets, track progress or measure impact.
These are not small flaws. They point to failures of leadership. Some ground-level officials in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment are working hard, often with great dedication. But they can only achieve so much within the current flawed parameters. Leadership on waste, especially at ministerial level, is simply absent.
This is frustrating because we know what works. Between 2013 and 2017, the Redisa tyre plan proved that South Africa could manage a waste stream successfully. Tyre recycling rose from 4% to 42%. More than 3,000 jobs were created and 226 small businesses were launched. Twenty-two waste tyre collection centres were built.
More importantly, the programme did not cost the state a cent. It was funded through a levy on new tyres, originally applied solely to waste tyres. It is currently still being collected but by the SA Revenue Service, and without the results it was intended to deliver. The Redisa system was unlawfully shut down in 2017, as clearly set out in a judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2019.
The Redisa model
Since then, the government has been responsible for waste tyres, to the detriment of our environment and our national health. The Redisa model matters because it can be scaled. Applied to other waste streams, such as packaging, plastics, or paper, it could create 60,000 direct jobs and up to 480,000 indirect jobs. It could add more than 1% to GDP. It could help build a green economy, at no cost to taxpayers. Yet the model has been ignored, while departmental officials are tasked to rubber stamp some minor tweaks to a flawed strategy.
The National Waste Management Strategy process is meant to provide the foundation for all waste systems. If the foundation is weak, nothing built on it will stand. That is why leadership is critical. Minister Dion George has the responsibility to step in. He must insist on ring-fenced funding, on credible data systems, on ending the confusion, and on proven models, like those of Redisa, being central to the plan.
South Africa’s waste problem is not unsolvable. It is simply being left unsolved. The review of the National Waste Management Strategy is an opportunity to change course. Without leadership, it will be just another box ticking exercise. With leadership, it could transform waste from a liability into an asset. And tyres are the place to begin, because we have done it before. DM