2 Overall approach for NWMS

2.1 Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to set out the overall approach of the National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS), including the eight priority goals and accompanying objectives for its achievement. It also sets out the indicators to measure the achievements against targets which are to be met within a five-year time-frame. These targets will be reviewed five years after the NWMS adoption.

The overall purpose of the strategy is to give effect to the objects of the Waste Act, which are to protect health, well-being and the environment through sound waste management and application of the waste management hierarchy. The strategy provides a plan to give practical effect to the Waste Act, and as such it seeks to ensure that responsibility for waste management is properly apportioned.

The legacy of inadequate waste services, poorly planned and maintained waste management infrastructure, and limited regulation of waste management persistently threaten the health and wellbeing of everyone in the country. Addressing this legacy and its negative environmental and social consequences, advances people's constitutional right to a healthy environment. The NWMS aims to redress the past imbalances in waste management. For example, waste licensing will not permit landfill sites within a particular radius of a human settlement.

The eight strategic goals around which the NWMS is structured are as follows:

Goal 1: Promote waste minimisation, re-use, recycling and recovery of waste.

Focuses on implementing the waste management hierarchy, and with the ultimate aim of diverting waste from landfill.
Goal 2: Ensure the effective and efficient delivery of waste services.

Promotes access to at least a basic level of waste services for all and integrates the waste management hierarchy into waste services, including separation at source.
Goal 3: Grow the contribution of the waste sector to the green economy.

Emphasises the social and economic impact of waste management, and situates the waste strategy within the green economy approach.
Goal 4: Ensure that people are aware of the impact of waste on their health, wellbeing and the environment.

Seeks to involve communities and people as active participants in implementing a new approach to waste management.
Goal 5: Achieve integrated waste management planning.

Creates a mechanism for integrated, transparent and systematic planning of waste management activities at each level of government.
Goal 6: Ensure sound budgeting and financial management for waste services.

Provides mechanisms to establish a sustainable financial basis for providing waste services.
Goal 7: Provide measures to remediate contaminated land.

Addresses the massive backlog of public and privately owned contaminated land in South Africa.
Goal 8: Establish effective compliance with and enforcement of the Waste Act.

Ensures that everyone adheres to the regulatory requirements for waste, management, and builds a culture of compliance.

Details of the objectives, indicators and targets to achieve each goal follow later in this chapter.

2.2 Link to Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System

Waste management is a crucial element in a suite of environmental interventions to sustainably manage development in South Africa. As such, waste management gives effect to Outcome 10 of the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWM&E)13, namely that 'environmental assets and natural resources are well protected and continually enhanced'. This outcome consists of several outputs and sub-outputs, and waste management contributes to two of its outputs. For 'Output 2: Reduced greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and improved air quality', waste minimisation, diversion of waste from landfill, composting and reduced resource consumption will help to reduce CO2 emissions. For 'Output 3: Sustainable Environmental Management', less and better managed waste is a key component of sustainable environmental management.

The NWMS also contributes to a number of other high level outcomes, namely:

Outcome 4: Decent Employment through Inclusive Economic Growth

Outcome 8: Sustainable Human Settlements and Improved Quality of Household Life

Outcome 9: Responsive, Accountable, Effective and Efficient Local Government System

 

  1. The Presidency: Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (2010) Measurable Performance and Accountable Delivery, Outputs and Measures, Outcome 10: Environmental Assets and Natural Resources that are well protected and continually enhanced draft, 10 May 2010.

2.3 Waste Management Hierarchy

Figure 1: Waste management hierarchy

The objects of the Waste Act are structured around the steps in the waste management hierarchy, which is the overall approach that informs waste management in South Africa. Therefore, the NWMS follows the waste management hierarchy approach.

The waste management hierarchy consists of options for waste management during the lifecycle of waste, arranged in descending order of priority. All stakeholders must apply the waste management hierarchy in making decisions on how to manage waste.

The foundation of the hierarchy, and the first choice of measures in waste management, is avoidance and reduction. This step aims for goods to be designed in a manner that minimises their waste components. Also, the reduction of the quantity and toxicity of waste generated during the production process is important.

The next stage of the hierarchy is re-using waste. Re-using an article removes it from the waste stream for use in a similar or different purpose without changing its form or properties. After re-use comes the recycling of waste, which involves separating articles from the waste stream and processing them as products or raw materials.

These first four stages of the waste management hierarchy are the foundation of cradle-tocradle waste management. This approach seeks to re-use or recycle a product when it reaches the end of its life span. In this way, it becomes inputs for new products and materials. This cycle repeats itself until as small a portion as possible of the original roduct eventually enters the next level of the waste management hierarchy: recovery.

Recovery involves reclaiming particular components or materials, or using the waste as a fuel.

As a last resort, waste enters the lowest level of the hierarchy to be treated and / or disposed of, depending on the safest manner for its final disposal.

Where the quantity of waste cannot be reduced during production, the purpose of implementing the waste management hierarchy is to use waste as a resource and divert these potential resources from landfill. Although landfill is widely considered the most affordable way to manage waste, this view does not take into account factors such as the environmental impacts of landfills; the costs of developing and maintaining additional landfill capacity to accommodate the increasing rate of waste disposal; and the cost of closing and remediating the landfill.

The goals of waste avoidance and reduction and the shift from landfilling waste to using it as a resource will be discussed in greater detail in relation to Goal 1.

2.4 Partnerships and Co-regulation

Implementing the waste management hierarchy and achieving the objects of the Waste Act will require coordinated action by many players, including households, businesses, community organisations, NGOs, parastatals and the three spheres of government. This means that a consultative and partnership based approach is essential for realising the NWMS; government action alone cannot be effective. Therefore, government is committed to following a co-regulatory and consensual approach that brings different actors on board and allows scope for local initiative and creativity.

As a first step, the various waste management measures that the Act envisages will be designed and implemented in a consultative manner. This includes monitoring the effectiveness and impact of the measures after implementation. The Act14 requires public consultation when developing each waste management measure, including national and provincial norms and standards, integrated waste management plans, industry waste management plans under certain circumstances, and declaration of priority wastes.

Implementing the waste management hierarchy requires a shift in consciousness, attitudes and behaviour for businesses, organisations and households. It also requires a country wide infrastructure to enable re-use and recycling. Partnerships around effective waste management must have concrete expression in local collaboration around initiatives to improve waste management. Municipalities and local stakeholders must play an active role in establishing such partnerships and participatory community projects. The role of education, advocacy and awareness is the subject of Goal 4, where the role of partnerships will be discussed in greater detail.

Industry, organisations and households have a critically important role to play in managing their own waste streams. In several examples of successful self-regulation, businesses have come together to manage a similar waste stream because managing waste collectively is more efficient than managing it individually. The greater the extent of responsible selfregulation, the less government needs to intervene and regulate. This frees up scarce government resources for more constructive initiatives. Furthermore, well organised industries can better identify the form of regulatory support they require from government. This approach is embodied in the notion of co-regulation, where mutually defined regulatory support enhances industry's ability to manage a waste stream.

Even in the traditional government area of regulatory compliance, partnerships are needed for compliance monitoring. Both business and civil society play a crucial role in identifying areas of risk and alerting government to the need for enforcement or legal action. This will be the subject of Goal 8, which addresses the role of compliance monitoring and enforcement.

 

  1. Section 73

2.5 Regulatory model

Figure 2: NWMS tool box of measures

NWMS, a tiered and consensual approach will be followed. This approach will optimally combine regulation and compliance measures with self regulatory components, voluntary initiatives, economic incentives, and fiscal mechanisms. The approach establishes baseline regulations for the waste sector as a foundation for a co-regulatory system that relies on industry initiative and voluntary compliance. In cases where industry response proves insufficient for dealing with waste challenges or where a market failure prevails, more interventionist regulatory tools may be deployed. The approach treats the measures set out in the Waste Act as a "tool box" of instruments that are able to address specific waste management challenges.

Figure 2 shows how the tiered and consensual regulatory approach uses the toolbox of instruments. Details of this approach and the instruments are in section 3.

 

 

 

 

 

2.6 Description of goals

This section discusses each of the goals outlined in the introduction to Section 2 in greater detail. It explains the objectives that underpin the goal, the strategy to achieve the goal, the indicators that will measure if the objectives have been met and the targets for the next five years.

Goal 1: Promote waste minimisation, re-use, recycling and recovery.

One of the primary intentions of the NWMS and the Waste Act is to implement the waste management hierarchy. Goal 1 addresses the first four stages of the waste management hierarchy, and is structured around two objectives. The first objective is to promote waste minimisation in the design, composition and manufacturing of products. The second objective is to promote re-use, recycling and recovery of goods and waste materials.

The Waste Act creates a general duty for waste holders to avoid generating waste and, failing that, to minimise the amount and the toxicity of the waste generated. Thereafter, they are expected to re-use, recycle or recover waste. Various instruments in the Act give effect to this duty of care, including norms and standards, integrated waste management plans, industry waste management plans, extended producer responsibility, and priority wastes.

Promoting waste minimisation goes beyond the remit of environmental policy and depends in part on industrial policy and supporting economic instruments. Government and industry will coordinate their actions in a waste minimisation programme that knits together the different policy strands and that identifies the goods and services to which the provisions can feasibly apply. The following measures to promote waste minimisation will be implemented:

  • Design principles that incorporate the re-use of goods or their dismantling into components for re-use. This measure will rely on greater investment in research and development. The existing 150% Research and Development Tax Rebate will support this measure. The Technology Innovation Agency, which facilitates innovation in design, will also promote this measure.
  • The quantity and toxicity of waste produced during the manufacturing processes are concerns of the Cleaner Production Development Strategy that the National Cleaner Production Centre is implementing. Furthermore, the Waste Act's Extended Producer Responsibility provisions require the implementation of cleaner production measures.
  • Industry waste management plans (IndWMPs) will set targets for waste reduction and for re-use, recycling and recovery. In 2011, plans are being prepared by the paper and packaging industry, the pesticide industry, the lighting industry (focusing on compact fluorescent lamps) and the tyres industry. IndWMPs will also be requested for selected electronic waste (e-waste) streams and batteries.

In relation to the second objective, increasing the re-use, recycling or recovery of goods and waste materials requires a coordinated effort by generators of waste, including households, businesses and organisations. Promoting the re-use, recycling or recovery of waste materials will be achieved through:

  • Producer responsibility initiatives in which industry takes responsibility for the lifecycle of products that they produce, establishes methods and funding mechanisms to manage the products once they become waste, and sets targets for re-use, recycling or recovery in IndWMPs.
  • Mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes declared by the Minister where IndWMPs have been ineffective and the Minister wishes to determine how certain waste streams are to be managed.
  • Collection and sorting of general recyclable waste materials, supported by a recycling infrastructure. General recyclable waste collection systems will be coupled to existing waste collection services and disposal sites will be transformed into waste management sites. Material recovery facilities and buy-back centres will be established in different municipalities, and space will be provided to sort waste into re-useable and recyclable waste.
  • Nationally coordinated awareness campaigns which support separation of recyclables from the domestic waste stream at source for all households, businesses and organisations15.
  • Diverting particular waste streams from landfill within prescribed periods as provided for by the draft Standard for Disposal of Waste to Landfill16. Local control measures for general waste entering landfill sites will reinforce diversion of recyclable waste from these sites. Municipalities will take responsibility for diverting organic waste17, which they can compost or use in biogas digesters.
  • Some waste management activities which stimulate the re-use, recycling and recovery of wastes will be listed as activities that do not require a waste management licence18, thereby decreasing regulatory constraints on these activities. Applications must demonstrate that the proposed waste management activity can be implemented and conducted consistently and repeatedly in a controlled manner without unacceptable impact on, or risk to the environment and health.
  • For waste types that cannot be re-used or recycled, various options exist for energy recovery, including biogas projects and methane gas from landfills19. The Renewable Energy White Paper20 will set out the mechanisms that government will implement to facilitate renewable energy technologies, including the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff. Thermal treatment of waste must conform to air emissions standards to mitigate the impact on health and the environment.
  • In some instances, the Minister of Environmental Affairs will declare a required percentage of recycled material in a product to actively promote markets for recycled material. The Waste Act provides for such a declaration.

A fundamental change in waste disposal practices will be supported by the development of a national recycling infrastructure through partnerships among the various role-players. The infrastructure will enable separation at source of organic waste, hazardous waste and clean general recyclable waste, and the collection of particular waste types that contaminate general household waste through specialised infrastructure. The responsibility of different role players for providing the recycling infrastructure for management of the different waste streams is set out in the following table.

Table 3: Role players' contribution to re-use, recycling and recovery of waste

Role General Waste Organic Waste Recyclables (paper, plastic, metal, glass and tyres) Hazardous (batteries, solvents, CFLs etc.)
Advocacy and education Municipality Municipality (with national and provincial support) Industry in partnership with municipality Industry
Providing bins at source or take back facilities Municipality Municipality Municipality to provide additional bins at source, Industry to provide accessible take back facilities Industry
Collecting waste Municipality Municipality SMEs supported by industry Industry
Processing waste Municipality Municipality MRFs run by SMEs and supported by industry Industry
Dispose of waste Municipality (landfill) Municipality (composting facility) No disposal as per set targets Industry

The fiscal instruments that support Goal 1 include full-costing accounting, cost-reflective tariffs, cost-recovery and, eventually, volumetric charging. The consequent increases in disposal fees will discourage waste generation. Goal 6 addresses fiscal instruments more comprehensively.

Three indicators will measure if the goal to promote waste minimisation, re-use, recycling or recovery of waste is achieved.

The first indicator will measure how the paper and packaging industry, pesticide industry, waste tyre industry and lighting industry perform against targets for waste minimisation, reuse and recycling set in their industry waste management plans. The aim is to fully achieve the targets in these four IndWMPs.

The second indicator measures the percentage of waste diverted from landfill. The target is to divert 25% of recyclables from landfill for re-use, recycling or recovery by 2015.

The third indicator will measure the number of municipalities in which separation of waste at source for households, businesses and organisations have been initiated. The target is for all metropolitan municipalities, secondary cities and large towns21 to have initiated separation at source programmes by 2015.

Goal 2: Ensure the effective and efficient delivery of waste services.

Waste services involve collecting waste from households, organisations and businesses, and disposing of this waste safely. Waste services are the Constitutional responsibility of local government, and municipalities are the primary interface between the public and government around waste management. The objectives of Goal 2 are to progressively expand access to at least a basic level of waste services, and to ensure that waste that cannot be re-used, recycled or recovered is disposed of safely in properly permitted landfill sites. These objectives address historical backlogs and inequalities in access to waste services, and improve the quality of life for the entire community by providing a cleaner place to work and live. Expanded waste services will also create jobs and so contribute to Goal 3.

Various regulatory, planning and fiscal instruments support the programme for effective and efficient delivery of waste services. They include:

  • The National Domestic Waste Collection Standards22, which are minimum standards that municipalities must meet for waste services in urban, peri-urban and rural contexts. The standards aim to redress past imbalances in waste collection services. Municipalities will use the standards to determine the level of service to provide and to select options for waste collection, separation at source, provision of receptacles, collection vehicles, and health and safety standards.
  • A policy that gives indigent households access to essential refuse removal services (the National Policy for the Provision of Basic Refuse Removal Services for Indigent Households23) supports the provision of waste services to those who cannot afford to pay for the services. This policy specifies appropriate service levels based on settlement densities, composition and volume of waste generated, and the subsidy mechanisms for targeting services to the indigent.
  • Municipal and provincial Integrated Waste Management Plans (IWMPs) will set out the strategy to achieve appropriate waste collection standards in each community. In these plans, municipalities set targets and describe how they will achieve them. The IWMPs will also contain methods to monitor and measure progress against targets.
  • Municipal by-laws will set service standards for separating, compacting, and storing solid waste, managing and directing solid waste disposal, and controlling litter. These by-laws will be based on national standards. The DEA will develop and circulate a generic by-law to assist municipalities in developing their own by-laws. Environmental Management Inspectors will monitor compliance with the requirements for storing waste.
  • Fiscal mechanisms, such as appropriate tariff setting and full-cost accounting for waste services, will help to fund the expanded waste services. Goal 6 describes these mechanisms in more detail.
  • Coordinated action by different spheres of government is required to address the fiscal and capacity problems faced in waste service provision. An interdepartmental committee consisting of DEA, National Treasury, DCOG, SALGA and Department of Human Settlements (DHS) will be established to address waste service delivery issues and support requirements to municipalities to expand waste services.

Using the basic service levels defined in the National Policy on the Provision of Basic Refuse Removal to Indigent Households, it is estimated that 90% of urban households and 47% of rural households have access to adequate levels of service24: Government will ensure access to basic waste collection services within 10 years. The strategy to achieve this has been set out in the Municipal Waste Sector Plan for Addressing Waste Service Backlogs25.

Municipalities struggle to effectively manage landfills and it will become more difficult when waste collection services expand. The DEA will help municipalities to better manage landfills through the following interventions:

  • DEA will publish a standard for disposal of waste to landfill26. It will include regulation on standard engineering design as well as acceptance and disposal requirements for different classes of landfills. Restrictions will specify the types of waste restricted or prohibited from disposal. Guidelines will also be developed for thermal waste treatment.
  • DEA will publish a standard to assess the level of risk associated with the disposal of waste to landfill27.
  • DEA will publish waste classification and management regulations that include criteria for and restrictions on waste disposal to landfill28.
  • Compliance with the norms and standards for hazardous wastes (established in the waste classification and management system) is crucial to achieve safe disposal of waste.
  • DEA will complete a nation-wide assessment of the steps required to standardise management and licensing of existing disposal sites. This assessment will be the basis for designing and implementing a programme to licence landfill sites.
  • A feasibility study on the regionalisation of waste disposal facilities will examine the costs and benefits of having regional disposal facilities.

The Minister, an MEC or municipality may require general waste transporters to register with the relevant Waste Management Officer (WMO) at national, provincial or local level. Transporters must prevent any spillage of waste or littering from a vehicle used to transport waste and the waste must be disposed of in an area authorised to accept such waste29. The Waste Classification and Management regulations require implementation of a waste manifest system for hazardous waste which will augment the current regulations which manage the transportation of hazardous waste.

By 2015, 95% of urban households and 75% of rural households will have access to adequate levels of service30. Annual Statistics SA surveys monitor the number of households receiving a waste management service. More detailed indicators are described in DEA's Waste Sector Targets and Performance Indicators31 and subsidiary indicators.

DEA will also monitor the percentage of waste disposal sites that are licenced. The target for 2015 is that 80% of the disposal sites will have licences.

Goal 3: Growing the contribution of the waste sector to the green economy.

Effective waste management has important economic and social impacts in addition environmental benefits. The waste management sector is an important part of the emerging green economy, and a well regulated, formalised waste sector will improve the efficiency of the overall economy.

The objectives of this goal are to stimulate job creation and broaden participation by SMEs and marginalised communities in the waste sector. These objectives include creating decent work through formalising the role of waste pickers and expanding the role of SMEs and cooperatives in waste management. New jobs will also be created by investing in recycling infrastructure to facilitate re-use, recycling and recovery32.

In line with the Green Economy Plan, measures will be implemented to strengthen and expand the waste economy so that it can generate and sustain jobs as well as formalise existing jobs in the waste economy. Growing the waste management sector will be primarily achieved through:

  • Using labour intensive methods to extend domestic waste collection services to unserviced communities where appropriate.
  • Extending and formalising jobs in the various stages of the recycling value chain, including collection, sorting, re-use and repair, product recovery, processing and manufacturing of recyclable materials.
  • Developing new markets for recycling of wastes.

While the extension of domestic waste collection services is the subject of Goal 2, the method of collection has a major impact on job creation in South Africa. For their waste services, municipalities are encouraged to use labour intensive, community-based collection methods, particularly in areas that are difficult to access or service through conventional collection methods. The Expanded Public Works Programme has successfully piloted community-based collection methods and lessons learnt there will be applied in the roll-out of waste services in the country.

Goal 1 sets out the measures to increase the rate of recycling in South Africa. This will be achieved by the creation of a country-wide infrastructure that can significantly expand jobs in recycling. DEA will provide guidance to municipalities and industry on measures to improve the working conditions of waste-pickers, establishment of Material Recovery Facilities and expand the role of SMEs and cooperatives in domestic waste collection services.

Job creation initiatives in the waste sector will be supported by the R9 billion jobs fund, as well as investment by development finance institutions. Government will provide financial and non-financial support to SMEs and cooperatives in the waste sector through Khula, the South African Micro-Finance Apex Fund and the IDC's small business fund. Government is considering merging these three agencies' services to maximise administrative efficiency33.

The indicators that will measure if this goal is achieved are the number of new jobs created and the number of additional SMEs and cooperatives participating in waste service delivery and recycling. The targets for 2015 are:

  • 69 000 new jobs created within the waste sector34.
  • 2 600 additional SMEs and cooperatives participating in waste service delivery and recycling.

Goal 4: Ensure that people are aware of the impact of waste on their health, well-being and the environment.

Awareness of the impact of waste on health, well-being and the environment is very uneven across different communities, as evidenced by the extent of littering. The objectives of this goal are to create awareness of waste management issues and to add practical waste projects to basic education curricula. For maximum effectiveness, waste awareness and anti-littering campaigns will be linked to the recycling infrastructure and to extended waste services. This will be particularly important in separating waste at source. For this reason, municipal campaigns designed and implemented in partnership with local stakeholders, including labour, industry, civil society and NGOs, form the foundation of the strategy to create awareness about waste.

DEA will launch a long term awareness campaign on waste management, to be implemented in a sustainable and incremental manner, with the objective of achieving behaviour changes. DEA will work with SALGA to develop a coordinated national approach to waste awareness that will provide common messages and promotional materials to support the municipal campaigns.

To create incentives for municipalities, existing recognition programmes such as the Cleanest Town competition will be expanded and strengthened as part of DEA's "Cleaning and Greening" programme. Specific criteria for municipal performance will inform recognition programmes. These include sustainable and equitable provision of waste services and community awareness and participation in waste management.

The national approach to waste awareness will take into account existing provincial initiatives and will use the experience and expertise of NGOs already active in this field. Indalo Yethu, the government's environmental campaign, has a key role to play in waste awareness through its branding of environmentally friendly products and its involvement in DEA's Cleaning and Greening programme. Industry has an important role to play in educating consumers about appropriate disposal of products, and in implementing take-back programmes for products, such as compact fluorescent lights and batteries, that cannot be discarded in domestic waste streams.

DEA will work with Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) to ensure that the implementation of provisions in the Consumer Protection Act that support Extended Producer Responsibility is aligned with the National Waste Management Strategy. Consumer awareness programmes must be integrated into Industry Waste Management Plans. Similarly, labour has an important role to play in raising health and safety issues relating to waste management and in ensuring that workplaces comply with waste management standards and regulations.

Waste management is currently included as a cross-cutting issue at the higher levels of the school curriculum, along with broader principles of environmental protection and water conservation. Waste as a topic in the curriculum will be strengthened through practical projects such as recycling and litter control. DEA will help the Department of Basic Education to develop and review guidelines for these projects. The target is for 80% of schools to be implementing waste awareness programmes, such as recycling projects, by 2015.

The target for local awareness campaigns is for 80% of municipalities to be running campaigns about waste and littering. Ultimately, awareness and recognition programmes around waste should result in visibly cleaner towns and cities, a reduction in illegal dumping, and the successful implementation of separation at source programmes.

Goal 5: Achieve integrated waste management planning.

Among others, backlogs in the waste collection services, aging vehicles and equipment, growing human settlements and decreasing airspace in landfills are stark challenges that require a coordinated approach by each sphere of government. Integrated waste management plans (IWMPs) are the principal tool to achieve this coordination. This goal has two primary objectives: to establish an effective system of IWMPs, in particular at local government level, and to establish and maintain an information base on waste flows.

Integrated waste management planning at each level of government will align and integrate the actions of national, provincial and local government. The IWMPs will set targets and describe plans for the three tiers of government and give practical effect to the policies and instruments set out in this NWMS. IWMPs will importantly link to mainstream budgeting and resource allocation, and to systems for performance monitoring and reporting.

Municipalities are the primary providers of waste collection and disposal services, and establishing an effective system of IWMPs at local government level is a priority. The Waste Act requires all municipalities to develop implementable IWMPs. IWMPs need to be outcomes focused, and must include priorities, objectives, targets, and implementation and financing arrangements. DEA will publish guidelines for Integrated Waste Management Planning which will inform the second generation of IWMPs35 to be aligned with the Waste Act.

IWMPs will be developed in a consultative manner, and will follow the provisions of Section 29 of the Municipal Systems Act.

IWMPs are approved in a tiered system, with municipal IWMPs submitted to the MEC for approval. The MEC must ensure alignment with other IWMPs and relevant plans. The Minister approves national and provincial IWMPs, which amongst others will set out how they intend to support municipalities to fulfil their obligations.

The Waste Act requires an annual review of all IWMPs, and annual performance reports describe the successes and challenges with implementing the IWMP.

To integrate waste services within broader municipal plans, municipalities need to amend their Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) to take account of the provisions in the IWMP. To align the preparation of IWMPs with the local government IDP planning cycle (linked to local elections every 5 years), municipalities will aim to complete their IWMPs during 2012. These IWMPs can then inform the new IDPs to be adopted within one year of the 2011 local government elections.

Waste planning requires accurate information on waste flows. Comprehensive information on waste flows from each waste management facility will be reported into the South African Waste Information System (SAWIS), which will contribute to an accurate national waste balance. The National Waste Information Regulations regulate the reporting of waste information for the protection of the environment and the management of waste. By 2016, all specified waste management facilities that are required to collect and report to the SAWIS are to have waste quantification systems.

To measure the progress of achieving integrated waste management planning, DEA and the provinces will monitor the percentage of municipalities who have prepared IWMPs and integrated them with IDPs. All municipalities must have IWMPs integrated with IDPs by 2015.

Goal 6: Ensure sound budgeting and financial management for waste services.

Sound budgeting and financial management are essential to sustainably provide waste services. In most municipalities waste services are under-priced and under-funded with aging capital infrastructure and insufficient capital investment. The objectives of this goal are for municipalities to use full-cost accounting and to implement cost reflective and, where feasible, volumetric tariffs.

Full-cost accounting is used to determine the complete cost of waste service provision. These costs include operational and capital expenditure for collection, transportation, landfill development and closure, street cleansing, fee collection, credit control, monitoring and enforcement costs, interest payments and depreciation. Full-cost accounting lays the basis for managing waste services as a financially sustainable service for all. It also enables municipalities to accurately project the costs of expanding the service. Using this information, municipalities can implement cost reflective tariffs and ultimately move onto more complex volumetric tariffs. Full-cost accounting will also indicate whether it is more cost effective to have internal or external waste service providers.

National Treasury will issue a municipal circular to provide guidelines for waste service budgets and the associated accounting practices required to make subsidy levels more transparent.

Waste management is an under-provided basic service and inadequate refuse removal is a negative externality that will require internal and external sources of revenue to compensate. The National Policy for the Provision of Basic Refuse Removal Services to Indigent Households36 provides guidance on financing mechanisms and implementation strategies to budget for basic refuse removal from indigent households. Revenue for these services comes from internal sources (cross-subsidies within the municipality) and external sources (transfers from the national fiscus through the Equitable Share Grant and the Municipal Infrastructure Grant).

Cost recovery by means of the customer's municipal bill, which includes the billing for waste services, is essential for a financially sustainable waste service. Municipalities will structure the tariffs for waste services such that they can fund the maintenance, renewal and expansion of the infrastructure required to provide the services. DEA will provide updated tariff setting guidelines,37 which include volumetric charging for waste service tariffs and establishment of revenue collection systems.

Tariff increases will be appropriately phased in so that consumers and businesses can manage their impact. Increasing user charges will take the number of indigent households and local economic conditions into account. Municipalities must justify in their budget documentation all increases in excess of the 6 percent upper boundary of the South African Reserve Bank's inflation target. Excessive increases in property rates and other tariffs, which might result in higher levels of non-payment and increased bad debts, must be avoided. Nevertheless, in the long term above-inflation increases in user charge rates will be unavoidable.

To avoid the unintended consequences of tariff increases (in particular increases in illegal dumping) the enforcement capacity in municipalities will be increased in parallel. Municipalities will ensure that by-laws are updated to support the enforcement of reulatory measures.

National Treasury will align equitable share provisions, Municipal Infrastructure Grants and other grant systems to support the extension of waste services and provide for minimum levels of refuse removal as a basic service. DEA and National Treasury will investigate and establish financing mechanisms to ensure that capital expenditures in the sector increase, to create a robust pipeline of municipal projects, and to develop an appropriate capital financing mix. DEA and National Treasury will also investigate the merits of a dedicated fund for supporting the extension of municipal waste services to un-serviced communities, using an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) type delivery model.

DEA will participate in municipal budget reviews that National Treasury undertakes, and in performance monitoring of metropolitan councils, to ensure that waste sector objectives are met in relation to municipal financial management.

As a result of these actions, it is planned that by 2015 all municipalities that provide waste services will have established full-cost accounting for waste services and will have implemented cost reflective tariffs. This will be monitored using municipalities' annual financial reports to National Treasury, and consolidated in the annual Municipal Budget and Expenditure Review.

Goal 7: Provide measures to remediate contaminated land

The measures to remediate contaminated land in Part 8 of the Waste Act address the historical lack of regulation around contaminated land. The aim is to progressively mitigate the health risks arising from contamination by hazardous wastes. Due to the historical absence of statutory obligations to report contaminated land, little data is available on the number and extent of contaminated sites. The first objective for remediation is to quantify the extent of contaminated land caused by current and past high risk activities. Contaminated land needs to be quantified in terms of geographical extent and in terms of financial liability, in order to secure adequate funding for remediation. The register of contaminated lands will be the primary instrument for this. The second objective of this goal is to prepare remediation plans for contaminated land.

DEA will set out its approach to implementing Part 8 of the Waste Act in the Framework for the Management of Contaminated Land38. To give effect to the measures in Part 8, a set of regulations will be gazetted in 2011. These regulations will require land owners to perform site assessments where high risk activities, such as the unauthorised disposal, storage, reuse, recycling, recovery or treatment of hazardous waste, have taken place.

Norms and standards will be established to define what constitutes contamination, and what is required for remediation. The Framework for the Management of Contaminated Land will set out technical standards and protocols for site assessments and remediation plans.

Promulgating these standards and protocols is a prerequisite for establishing the Register of Contaminated Lands, which will link to the national Deeds Register. After due consultation, guidelines will be issued that spell out the implications for affected sectors, and that describe the roles and responsibilities of affected organisations and persons, such as owners of contaminated lands, financial institutions involved in land transactions, property developers and estate agents.

DEA will assess the extent of the state's liability in terms of remediation so that appropriate funding arrangements in terms of a National Remediation Fund can be negotiated with the National Treasury.

The percentage of sites reported as contaminated to the contaminated land register which have had site assessments performed will measure progress with addressing contaminated land. The target for 2015 is to have completed assessments on 80% of the sites on the Register of Contaminated Lands. By 2015, DEA intends to have approved remediation plans for 50% of the confirmed contaminated sites. The number of site assessments that need to be performed, and the cost of remediation in terms of approved remediation plans will provide the basis for establishing funding requirements for contaminated lands. Goal 8: Effective compliance with and enforcement of the Waste Act

While the Waste Act creates a comprehensive legal framework for waste management, its provisions will be meaningless without measures to monitor and, where necessary, enforce compliance. Government cannot do this alone. Business and civil society have a vital role to play in creating a culture of compliance, and in reporting instances of non-compliance. For its part, government will systematically monitor compliance with the Waste Act, which includes regulations published in terms of the Act, licences, industry waste management plans and integrated waste management plans. This is the first objective of this goal. The second objective is for government to extend the current Environmental Management Inspectorate's capacity so that it can enforce the Waste Act.

Compliance monitoring is supported by a range of reporting provisions contained in the Waste Act. In addition to compliance reports for waste management licences and norms and standards, the Act has provisions for annual performance reports on the implementation of provincial and local Integrated Waste Management Plans. Industry Waste Management Plans are subject to review at intervals to be determined by the authority that mandated the plan. Furthermore, Environmental Management Inspectors and Waste Management Officers can request a Waste Impact Report where they suspect a contravention of the Act, licence conditions or exemption conditions. The existing national hotline for waste-related environmental crimes as well as the whistle-blower provisions contained in NEMA will augment the reporting mechanisms described above. These mechanisms will help to identify non-compliance and initiate enforcement actions. The information from these reporting mechanisms will be used to develop a programme for strategic compliance and enforcement inspections in relation to the Waste Act.

Government itself has a serious challenge in terms of the current state of treatment facilities and disposal sites, and as indicated under Goal 2 a national programme will be implemented to systematically bring these facilities into compliance. The Operating Procedure for noncompliant organs of state will guide how to address non-compliance. The Operating Procedure will be finalised and disseminated to all relevant organs of state. The capability to monitor compliance with and enforce the provisions of the Waste Act requires that the Environmental Management Inspectorate expands substantially. Approximately 800 additional Environmental Management Inspectors (EMIs) will be appointed; two-thirds of them will operate at provincial and local government level. The desirable number of EMIs in each municipality and province will be quantified. Recommendations for their designation will be made, including options for leveraging the existing skills base and, in particular, the inclusion of Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP). The qualifications of both types of enforcement officials will be aligned by including EMI Basic Training Material into the EHP National Diploma. An EMI Training Manual consisting of a set of Standard Operating Procedures will be developed to standardise and harmonise their compliance and enforcement activities.

DEA will monitor the compliance and enforcement through two indicators: the number of enforcement actions against non-compliant facilities, and the number of EMIs dealing with Waste Act issues at local, provincial and national level. Three sub-indicators will measure enforcement actions: the number of accused convicted, the number of Section 105A agreements (plea bargains), and the number of final directives/compliances notices issued. The targets for 2015 are a 50% increase in the number of enforcement actions, and the appointment of 800 EMIs. The objectives, indicators and targets for each goal are summarised in Table 4 below. Reference numbers next to text refer to notes at the end of the table.

Table 4: Goals, objectives, indicators and targets for the NWMS

Goal 1:
Promote waste minimisation, re-use, recycling and recovery		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Promote waste minimisation in the design, composition, and manufacturing of products		 Targets and measures for waste minimisation in the paper and packaging industry, pesticide industry, lighting industry and waste tyre industry's IndWMPs Full achievement of targets set in the four IndWMPs
Objective 2:
Promote re-use, recycling and recovery		 % of recyclables diverted from landfill sites for re-use, recycling and recovery 25% of recyclables diverted from landfill sites for re-use recycling or recovery2 by 2015
No. of municipalities in which separation of waste at source initiatives are being implemented All metropolitan municipalities, secondary cities and large towns39 have initiated separation at source programmes by 2015.
Goal 2:
Ensure the effective and efficient delivery of waste services		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Progressively expand access to waste services to at least a basic level of service		 % of households receiving basic waste collection services 95% of urban households and 75% of rural households have access to adequate levels of waste collection services
Objective 2:
Safe disposal of waste in licenced landfill sites		 % of licenced waste disposal sites 80% of waste disposal sites have licences
Goal 3:
Growing the contribution of the waste sector to the green economy		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Stimulate job creation in the waste sector		 No. of new jobs created in the waste sector 69 000 new jobs created in the waste sector1
Objective 2:
Broaden participation by SMEs and marginalised communities in the waste sector		 No. of additional SMEs and cooperatives participating in waste service delivery and recycling 2 600 additional SMEs and cooperatives participating in waste service delivery and recycling1
Goal 4:
Ensure that people are aware of the impact of waste on their health, well-being and the environment		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Municipalities to create awareness of waste management issues		 % of municipalities running local awareness campaigns 80% of municipalities running local awareness campaigns
Objective 2:
Add waste content to the school curriculum and ensure that there are practical waste projects in the basic education curricula		 % of schools implementing waste awareness programmes 80% of schools implementing waste awareness programmes
Goal 5:
Achieve integrated waste management planning		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Establish an effective system of IWMPs at local government level.		 The % of municipalities that have integrated their IWMPS into their IDPs 100% of municipalities have integrated their IWMPs with their IDPs
The % of municipalities that have met the targets set in IWMPs 100% municipalities have met the targets set in their IWMPs
Objective 2:
Establish and maintain an information base on waste flows.		 The % of waste management facilities with waste quantification systems. All waste management facilities required to report to SAWIS have waste quantification systems that report information to WIS.
Goal 6:
Ensure sound budgeting and financial management for waste services		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Ensure full-cost accounting for waste at municipal level		 % of municipalities that provide waste services that have conducted full-cost accounting for waste services 100% of municipalities that provide waste services have conducted full-cost accounting for waste services
Objective 2:
Implement cost reflective and volumetric tariffs		 % of municipalities that provide waste services that have implemented cost reflective tariffs. 100% of municipalities that provide waste services have implemented cost reflective tariffs
Goal 7:
Provide measures to remediate contaminated land		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Quantify the extent of contaminated land		 The % of sites reported to the contaminated land register which have site assessments performed Assessment completed for 80% of sites reported to the contaminated land register
Objective 2:
Prepare and approve remediation plans for contaminated land		 The % of confirmed contaminated sites with approved remediation plans Remediation plans approved for 50% of confirmed contaminated sites
Goal 8:
Effective compliance with and enforcement of the Waste Act		 Proposed indicators Targets (2016)
Objective 1:
Systematically monitor and enforce compliance with regulations, authorisation conditions and plans		 % of successful enforcement actions against non-compliant facilities 50% increase in the number of successful enforcement actions against non-compliant facilities5
Objective 2:
EMI capacity expanded to enforce the Waste Act		 Number of EMIs dealing with Waste Act at local, provincial and national level 800 EMIs appointed in the three spheres of government to enforce the Waste Act.5

Explanatory Notes

  1. Based on the estimated jobs impact of targets for expanding waste service delivery and diversion of waste from landfill contained in Department of Environmental Affairs, "Cost Estimate of the National Waste Management Strategy: Final Report", February 2011.
  2. A 25% diversion of municipal waste from landfill for the purposes of re-use, recycling or recovery is informed by the target committed to in the Minister's Performance Agreement: Outcome 10: Environmental Assets and Natural Resources that are well protected and continually enhanced. This diversion will be achieved through the diversion of organic waste, construction waste and paper and packaging waste.
  3. All metropolitan municipalities, secondary cities and large towns, referred to as Category A, B1 and B2 municipalities in the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Framework, DCOG & DBSA, 2008, to initiate separation at-source programmes.
  4. 50% increase in the number of successful enforcement actions against non-compliant facilities will be calculated from the combination of the following three sub-indicators: the number of accused convicted, the number of Section 105A agreements (plea bargains), and the number of final directives/compliances notices issued.
  5. The appointment of 800 EMIs is based on estimates of the number of EMIs required in each province and municipality. At a municipal level, the intention is for Environmental Health Practitioners to undertake EMI duties as soon as an EMI bridging training for existing EMIs is put into effect and in the longer term, the mainstreaming of the EMI Basic Training into the EHP National Diploma or BTech.

 

  1. Details of the awareness campaigns are described under Goal 4
  2. Draft Standard for Disposal of Waste two Landfill, to be issued in terms Section 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(c) of the Waste Act, 2008, published for public comment, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, 2010
  3. Defined by the South African Waste Categorisation and Management System as comprising garden and food waste
  4. This is contained in the provisions in Part 4 of the Waste Classification and Management Regulations.
  5. Biogas from landfill sites will be exploited in the short term, as significant benefits arise from reducing methane emissions because of its high global warming potential. Other technologies such as thermal energy from biogas digesters are in an embryonic phase, but have potential for future development.
  6. The Renewable Energy White Paper is currently being updated and revised from the 2003 version, and will be finalised in 2011.
  7. Referred to as Category A, B1 and B2 municipalities in the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Framework, DCOG & DBSA, 2008
  8. Government Gazette No. 32687 Notice 1475 of 2009. Department of Environmental Affairs. National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008 (Act No. 59 of 2008) National Domestic Waste Collection Standards.
  9. Government Gazette No. 32688 Notice 1476 of 2009 Draft Policy on Free Basic Refuse Removal. Department of Environmental Affairs.
  10. The service levels reported in the StatsSA data are not specific and do not accurately match the basic service levels defined in the National Policy on Free Basic Refuse Removal. To resolve these issues, the following assumptions have been made:
    • All communal dumping as recorded in the StatsSA data is considered inadequate as a basic level of service
    • On-site disposal is considered inadequate in urban areas
    • 50% of rural on-site disposal is considered to be inadequate

    The above assumptions result in the following revision of the StatsSA figures. The figures for 2015 and 2020 show the Government's targets:

    % adequate Urban Rural
    2010 90% 47%
    2015 95% 75%
    2020 100% 100%

  11. Department of Environmental Affairs "Addressing Challenges with Waste Service Provision in South Africa: Municipal Waste Sector Plan Draft May 2010.
  12. See Draft Standard for Disposal of Waste two Landfill, to be issued in terms Section 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(c) of the Waste Act, 2008, published for public comment, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, 2010
  13. See Draft Standard for Assessment of Waste for Landfill Disposal, to be issued in terms of under Section 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(c) of the Waste Act, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, 2010
  14. See Draft National Waste Classification and Management Regulations, to be issued in terms of Section 69(1)(a), (b), (g), (h), (m), (q), (s), (dd) and (ee), read with Section 71(1) and 71(2) of the Waste Act, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, 2010
  15. Section 25 of the Waste Act.
  16. The targets to expand access to waste services are based on the service levels defined in the National Policy on Free Basic Refuse Removal.
  17. Department of Environmental Affairs "Addressing Challenges with Waste Service Provision in South Africa: Waste Sector Targets and Performance Indicators Draft August 2009."
  18. The subject of Goal 1: Promote waste minimisation, re-use, recycling and recovery.
  19. Announced in State of the Nation Address, 2011.
  20. Based on the estimated jobs impact of targets for expanding waste service delivery and diversion of waste from landfill contained in Department of Environmental Affairs, "Cost Estimate of the National Waste Management Strategy: Final Report", February 2011.
  21. Many municipalities have already completed "first generation" IWMPs which predated the promulgation of the Waste Act.
  22. Department of Environmental Affairs. National Policy for the Provision of Basic Refuse Removal Services to Indigent Households. October 2010
  23. Solid Waste Tariff Setting Guidelines for Local Authorities. DEAT. 2002.
  24. The Framework for the Management of Contaminated Land was published for public comment in May 2010 by the Department of Environmental Affairs.
  25. Referred to as Category A, B1 and B2 municipalities in the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Framework, DCOG & DBSA, 2008