4.1 Norms and Standards

National norms and standards provide the foundation of the regulatory system. The Waste Act allows for an integrated system of norms and standards across the three spheres of government. Certain norms and standards at a national level are mandatory, while others are discretionary. In addition provinces may set norms and standards that are not in conflict with national norms and standards. Municipalities may also set local waste service standards. .It is envisaged that the system of norms and standards will be developed in a sequenced manner, with the immediate focus being on the development of mandatory standards, which include:

• the classification of waste;
• planning and delivery of waste management services; and
• the storage, treatment and disposal of waste (including the planning and operation of waste treatment and waste disposal facilities). 

• the contribution to achievement of the waste hierarchy;
• the extent of the environmental impact;
• the impact on availability of landfill space;
• the relationship to other priority sectors (such as waste-to-energy and its contribution as a climate change mitigation strategy);
• the existence of proactive industries such as those that have prepared IWMPs;
• elements of the waste transportation sector that have not been properly regulated. 

4.2 Categorisation and Classification

In order to integrate and align waste information, it is essential that a consistent and coherent system for classifying and categorising waste is developed. The current hazardous waste classification system, based on the DWAF Minimum Requirements for the Handling, Treatment, and Disposal of Waste, is in the process of being revised by the Directorate: Waste Stream Management within DEA. The outcomes of this process need to be integrated into the NWMS, since its outcomes are vital to the implementation of the strategy.

• Waste Classification: assigning hazardous waste to hazard class and category based on properties, characteristics, and components
• Waste Characterisation: description of the non-hazardous physical and chemical properties of waste
• Waste Categorisation: defining groups of waste for the purposes of monitoring and reporting.

• General and Hazardous waste
• Inert and Non-Inert waste
• The origin of particular waste streams i.e. domestic, health care, commercial, industrial, construction and demolition, power stations, mining, and eWaste.

The categorisation system needs to be aligned with proposals emerging from the DEA project on the classification of hazardous waste, and a final proposal will be included in the NWMS. All waste information and management systems will be required to use a common categorisation system, which will be described more fully in the NWMS.

4.3 Waste Information System

The lack of reliable data on the waste sector highlights the importance of the South African Waste Information System (SAWIS) as a key instrument for implementing the Waste Act and NWMS. SAWIS is intended to provide a mechanism for obtaining accurate waste balance information through on line submission of data by waste facilities and companies, as well as vertical integration of information systems between national and provincial Waste Information Systems (WISs), and horizontal integration with other waste regulation and information systems.

The SAWIS is currently in the first phase of rollout, and is grappling with the challenges of integration with provincial WISs, such as the Western Cape WIS. The goal is for data to update automatically and seamlessly from provincial WISs to the SAWIS. On a practical level, the NWMS will develop a comprehensive set of fields required for national planning for inclusion in the provincial WISs.

Horizontal integration of SAWIS with other waste regulation and information systems is required for licensing procedures (which are captured on the National Environmental Authorisation System (NEAS)). An integrated procedure for licensing and registration on NEAS is desirable, but this does not exempt licensees from registration with SAWIS. Facilities that fail to meet licensing requirements, or are granted exemption from licensing requirements, will still be required to register with SAWIS.

As a key element of such integration, a standard categorisation system is required for waste information submitted to SAWIS, NEAS and other systems. The categorisation system currently used by SAWIS is rudimentary, and an interim measure. It is envisaged that the categorisation system for SAWIS will be informed by the national classification system, which is scheduled to be finalised by the end of 2010.

The development and maintenance of the required categorisation system is seen as an integral part of the NWMS. As categorisation systems change, data needs to be updated on the SAWIS database in order to clear the old categorisation system

The initial focus of SAWIS is on end-of-pipe waste data i.e. data from facilities associated with waste disposal, recycling, recovery, and import and export of waste. In relation to thresholds for requiring recycling activity to be recorded, it is recommended that the thresholds gazetted for listed activities be used. Data on waste generators is only anticipated to be included in SAWIS in phase 4. To fully implement all the requirements of the Waste Act, SAWIS is envisaged to ultimately perform waste tracking and compliance reporting functionalities.

It is recommended that the National Waste Management Officer play the role of the Waste Information Authority as required by the Waste Act. In terms of the integrity of information on the SAWIS, it is proposed that SANAS accredited bodies certify WIS submissions by industry. Access by the public and industry to information stored on SAWIS is considered vital and is the quid pro quo for industry submitting information onto the database. It is also a statutory requirement in terms of the Waste Act. The NWMS will therefore need to spell out conditions and procedures for access to information.

4.4 Industry Waste Management Plans

• Voluntary submission of an industry waste management plan is preferable for both industry and the DEA, and aligns with the concept of general duty of care.
• Where industries have not developed plans, the Minister may require certain industries to produce industry waste management plans. Before doing so, the Minister must consider various matters, including the environmental impact of the waste streams, and the ability of the envisaged plan to address such impact.
• Under certain circumstances the Minister may appoint certain persons to develop industry waste management plans on behalf of industry.
• As a last resort, the Minister can appoint an organ of state to develop industry waste management plans on behalf of industry.

• Tyres;
• paper and packaging;
• light fittings with mercury such as CFLs; and
• pesticides (agriculture and veterinary).

• Finalise the guidelines for industry waste management plans;
• Industry waste management plans produced by the four listed industries will be submitted, as a pilot, in agreement with DEA; and
• Voluntary preparation and submission from other industries, in agreement with DEA.

There are overlaps between the regulatory provisions for industry waste management plans, extended producer responsibility and priority wastes. The NWMS needs to clarify how these overlapping relationships and interfaces will be addressed. The NWMS also needs to examine and make recommendations on how compliance with an industry waste management plan can be interpreted as compliance with requirements for other environmental management plans (or vice versa).
 

4.5 Listing and Licensing of Waste Management Activities

• the NEAS (due to the requirements for the basic and full EIA assessments in respect to licensing applications);
• the SAWIS; and
• the National Compliance Monitoring System (in relation to compliance monitoring). 

Information is replicated across these systems and it creates an unnecessary burden for both applicants and the department; especially because there is a tendency to work in hard copy. There is confusion between the process of registering with SAWIS and the license application process, with some applicants mistaking the SAWIS registration certificate for a license. The NWMS will reinforce the principle and approach of efficient administration of the licensing process as a basis for ensuring effective regulation of listed waste management activities.

4.6 Special Measures

The Waste Act provides for specific regulatory measures to be taken with respect to wastes that are declared to be “priority wastes”. Considerations that need to be taken into account when identifying a priority waste include the nature and extent of risks to health and the environment, relevant international obligations, and the economic impact of the measures.

Potential consequences of a waste being declared a priority waste include the requirement for compilation of industry waste management plans for the waste, and regulatory controls on the minimization, handling, treatment, and disposal of the waste. Industry representatives have voiced a clear preference for self regulation, indicating that the threat of regulation would be sufficient to encourage the development of industry waste management plans in most cases.

However the declaration of priority wastes can also be used to positively reinforce measures identified in Industry Waste Management Plans, particularly where they concern waste with economic significance and job creation potential.

The Waste Act provides for the registration of private sector transporters of waste with Waste Management Officers at either a national, provincial, or local level. Some municipalities already have registration and licensing systems. Appropriate threshold requirements, particularly with respect to the transport of recyclables will need to be developed.

Section 17 of the Waste Act stipulates that reduction, re-use, recovery and recycling of waste should consume less natural resources than the standard disposal of such waste. It is not clear how many existing operations will actually comply with this provision, and the consequences of implementing this part of the Waste Act need to be carefully assessed. A regulatory impact assessment and options analysis is proposed to address some of the knowledge gaps and to identify feasible approaches to implement these provisions.

Additional measures contemplated in section 17 include mandatory recycling of particular products or components, or the requirement for products to contain a specified percentage of recyclates. The NWMS should set out criteria for the application of these provisions.

Section 17 requires the Minister for Water and Environmental Affairs to consult with the Minister for the DTI before declaring a priority waste. The establishment of an interdepartmental committee comprising DEA, DTI and the National Treasury has been proposed to consider priority waste legislation and regulations and to apply criteria for the utilisation of special measures.

4.7 Producer Responsibility

The Waste Act establishes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as a regulatory mechanism for achieving waste reduction through minimisation, reuse and recycling of waste. Currently, most producer responsibility schemes in South Africa are voluntary, industry-led and based on post consumer waste streams. Government initiatives include the mandatory point of sale levy on plastic bags.

• In consultation with DEA, industry will set realistic targets based on their knowledge of their sector in industry waste management plans.
• Industry will work towards achieving these targets through a variety of mechanisms, including education and awareness programmes, recycling, and product and materials levies.
• Industry will report on these targets annually to DEA, and provide reasons when targets are not met. Should an industry repeatedly fail to meet agreed targets without justifiable cause, DEA will implement relevant regulatory measures, penalties and / or disincentives.
• Targets will be reviewed at regular intervals, as agreed by industry and DEA.

• The role of both voluntary and mandatory Industry Waste Management Plans in achieving EPR.
• The relationship between provisions for declaration of priority wastes and EPR. For example, it is important to determine at what point waste from an industry failing to meet EPR agreements should be considered for listing as a priority waste.
• Funding of EPR. While government has a role to play in EPR, it is not the state’s obligation to fund it. Where industry raises the funds for EPR, representatives have argued for control of how and where funds are used. The failure to ring-fence funds derived from the plastic bag levy is cited as a concern by industry.

Mechanisms to protect poor communities from the financial and regulatory impacts of EPR needs to be considered. Whilst some buy-back centres were established for plastic bags in an attempt to reduce the impact of the plastic bag levy on the poor, this initiative is felt to have been relatively unsuccessful, and alternative mechanisms will need to be explored.

4.8 Consumer Protection

Consumer protection is dealt with principally by the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, which exists to promote and advance the social and economic welfare of consumers. In addition to implementing the concept of producer responsibility, the NWMS must give effect to the principle of duty of care, which amongst other encompasses consumer protection. In doing this the relevant requirements of the Consumer Protection Act and the Competition Act will be considered.

• categories of goods that are required to have a trade description applied to them, or
• goods which have been reconditioned, rebuilt or remade and bear the original producer’s trade mark.

A broader concern is the degree to which the recycling sector is dominated by de-facto monopolies, either funded by industry or state-owned. While these initiatives have been undertaken in order to take advantage of economies of scale, they may serve as a barrier to entry in the sector, and risk introducing pricing inefficiencies that run counter to the interests of consumers. This needs to be investigated further in the NWMS.

4.9 Economic Instruments

Economic instruments provide a potentially important influence on the effective and efficient regulation of the solid waste sector. Economic instruments achieve behaviour changes indirectly by creating a set of incentives and/or disincentives through pricing. Economic instruments can offer a more cost-effective and dynamic form of regulation than the traditional command and control approach. It has been argued that the main benefit of economic instruments is that they may allow for the meeting of a target at a lower overall cost than traditional command mechanisms.

In addition to the mainstream taxation system, the Waste Act provides certain additional legislative measures for the use of such economic instruments.

A key economic principle in terms of waste management is that ‘the polluter pays’. According to this principle all generators of waste (including businesses and households) are responsible for covering the costs of waste generated. Government can make use of a number of options to ensure that both private and social costs are covered. However the lack of full cost accounting of the costs of service delivery and tariff policies prevent full costs from being passed on to households and commercial enterprises, which undermines the polluter pays principle.

It should be noted that application of these economic instruments are not seen as an alternative to regulatory measures, but rather as further mechanisms to support “command and control” regulation. A specific area of concern for the application of economic instruments is a precondition for a well functioning market and governance institutions with sufficient capacity to ensure implementation.

Pricing is a significant concern within the waste sector, where there is a tendency to under price for the waste service in terms of collection and disposal. There is a clear need for price increases in order to redress this, however the economic downtown has spurred a drive to keep prices low, and it is important to acknowledge the economic context in which the NWMS must operate. The risks of over-inflation may include an increase in illegal dumping for example. While a general adjustment in pricing is necessary, it should be appropriately phased in so as to avoid over-inflating costs. Opportunities for efficiency gains should be explored to off-set price increases where possible.

Full cost accounting for waste services is necessary in order to ensure that waste services are appropriately priced. This includes taking account of the full capital replacement, operating and environmental costs of delivering the waste service. It is important to drive efficiency improvements in service delivery. A fundamental step is therefore to understand the true costs of the waste service. Municipalities especially need assistance in this regard and the NWMS should aim to provide guidance to municipalities in addressing the need for full cost accounting.

Pricing adjustments should start with larger municipalities and be based on 80/20 principle. A ‘one-size fits all’ approach will not be appropriate and there needs to be consideration given to the differential contexts of municipalities.

The NWMS should steer away from artificially influencing pricing to support recycling and other objectives.

In examining economic instruments, it is important to avoid unintended consequences (for example an increase in illegal dumping as a result of increased disposal tariffs). It is therefore essential therefore to have a suite of mechanisms in place, for example increasing enforcement capacity and establishing community based initiatives to curb illegal dumping which is at risk of increasing in response to fee increases.

Possible economic instruments include Deposit Refund Schemes, Minerals extraction taxes, Waste disposal taxes, Enforcement fines, Product Taxes and Local government incentives. The research has not supported any broad application of economic instruments at this stage, since it is important to get the fundamentals right first. Specific instruments may be warranted for consideration in relation to specific waste streams. However any economic instruments to be considered should be carefully evaluated against a set of criteria. In this regard it is proposed that National Treasury’s Environmental Fiscal Reform criteria should be used in evaluating use of economic instruments.

Within the context of the NWMS, economic instruments are seen as part of a multi-pronged strategy to achieve the objectives of waste reduction, re-use and recycling. It is envisaged that once enforcement capacity of current laws and regulations is improved, the use of economic instruments will be phased in gradually, starting with simpler mechanisms and moving towards more complex ones as the institutional capacity grows over time.

Particular caution should be taken to ensure that only the real costs of any economic instruments (for example a levy) should be internalized so as to ensure protection of the consumer. In addition, while industries may be best placed to implement certain economic instruments there should be oversight by government to ensure appropriate and fair practices.

4.10 Fiscal Mechanisms for Waste Management

• Developing guidelines for intra-sector cross-subsidies and/or external subsidies to assist municipalities in determine appropriate subsidy levels;
• Distinguishing between consumer types to guide equitable share allocations from external subsidies;
• Ring-fencing guidelines for budgeting and accounting practices to facilitate a greater degree of transparency in subsidy levels relative to the cost of service delivery, and assist regulators in exercising greater oversight in this area.

• In the short term, tariff levels and subsidy costs need to be reviewed in the context of the development of policies on the provision of free basic services. Clear guidelines and support to assist municipalities in evaluating their current tariff structures are required.
• In the medium term, devising and introducing tariff structures that encourage waste minimisation and implementing full cost accounting
• In the long term, above-inflation increases in user charge rates will be required, both within national and local government, and with consumers

• Universal service: this window would be used to assist municipalities to make greater use of MIG for financing solid waste infrastructure to support labour intensive projects that expand services to poor households. The efficacy of the window can be measured by the proportion of total MIG funding allocated to solid waste infrastructure. The rules of the MIG programme need to be amended to allow financing of all solid waste assets funded on the capital budgets of municipalities, including trucks.
• Private financing: this window would support municipalities to develop projects that would be financed through development contributions, carbon credits, private equity or borrowing.

• Levying development charges on property developers during intensification of land use.
• Generating revenue sales and carbon credits from energy generation from waste incineration and incentivising waste to energy schemes by municipalities.

The above mechanisms form part of an overarching fiscal framework for implementation of the NWMS and the waste hierarchy. It is important that DEA, in conjunction with National Treasury and COGTA, develops the necessary policy and regulatory tools to give effect to the fiscal framework for the NWMS.