1 Background

In devising more coherent and responsive environmental approaches, legislative and policy processes in the waste sector over the last decade have culminated in the Waste Act (No 59. of 2008) (the Waste Act). The 1999 National Waste Management Strategy identified the need for a comprehensive legislative framework for dealing with the impacts of waste, which the Waste Act now provides. The Act includes a variety of legislative instruments, many of which are complex and require coordinated action by a variety of stakeholders. In order to apply these instruments within a coherent policy framework and strategy, the Act requires the development of a National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) as the main policy instrument to guide implementation of the provisions in the Act.

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has commenced with the process for development of the strategy. A framework for the strategy has been prepared, stakeholders have been consulted, baseline research on the main themes has been commissioned to inform the drafting process, and the findings of the research have been debated by government and stakeholders in the sector. These inputs have been used to inform this synthesis paper, which highlights the key issues and policy options for the NWMS.