South Africa’s plastics production & recycling both growing
The latest report on South Africa’s plastics manufacturing and recycling industries, published by Plastics South Africa (Plastics SA) at the end of 2022, recorded total growth of 4.7% in 2021. A total of 1,904,924 t of polymer were converted into new plastics products during the year.
This sum included locally produced and imported virgin material, as well as locally recycled material, which increased its market share from 20.6% to 21.7%. Anton Hanekom, Plastics SA Executive Director, welcomed the growth as indicating that the market and industry are recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Packaging accounted for half of South Africa’s overall plastic consumption. Rigid packaging made up 29%; flexible packaging totalled 21%. Building and construction is the third-largest sector. South Africa is not noted as a ‘packaging powerhouse’, Mr Hanekom observed, while noting that the non-packaging sector is a weakness for the country.
Recycling is developing strongly. South Africa recycled 344,527 t of plastics in 2021, which was 10% more than the previous year, but Plastics SA stressed that more needs to be done to support local recyclers and develop the industry. Mr Hanekom called for more products to be designed for recycling; for the systems and infrastructure to be put in place to collect recyclable material early in the solid waste stream; for standards to be developed and adhered to for recycling processes and their product; and for environmental claims to be substantiated. South Africa’s recycling sector is showing strong growth over a sustained period; production has increased by 36% since 2012. The average proportion of recycled content in new products has risen from 14.8% to 16.7% over the same period. However, “New end-markets for recycled plastics are critical to ensure the industry’s longterm viability,” Mr Hanekom said. Plastics converters were severely strained as the overall economic climate deteriorated in 2021. Recyclers have had to work harder than ever before to find sustainable markets for their materials; only 7.7% of S Africa’s recyclate was exported as raw material to Asian and Southern African Development Community (SADC) plastics converters. “While plastics collection and recycling have improved slightly, we are still not back to pre-Covid year levels recorded in 2019,” he declared. “Although still considerably less than virgin polymers, recycling still consumes a lot of energy. To ensure economic quantities, recyclables must also be transported to reprocessing plants.”
Strategic partnerships boost recycling and generate income opportunities
Communities across South Africa are responding. More than 40 local, district and provincial municipalities countrywide benefitted from strategic sustainability partnerships in 2021/2, according to PET Plastic Recycling South Africa (Petco), which has been engaging with municipalities on sustainability, waste management and recycling projects for over 17 years. These initiatives also create income opportunities, which are of great value in a country whose unemployment rate exceeded 35% in Q4 2021. They are also helping to develop the circular economy.
The Zonda Insila Programme (ZIP), for example, was launched in Breyton, Mpumalanga, about 200 km East of Johannesburg, in 2019. It had only four projects initially but now has 14, supporting 240 community members in another three district municipalities in Mpumalanga. Informal waste picking is a valuable source of income in the area. Petco provides equipment and infrastructure support, buy-back centres and training and skills development for municipal employees involved in waste management. The structure aims to help informal wastepickers into the formal recycling sector, which will bring benefits of steady employment and income. There are significant opportunities.
“Currently, there are very few municipal separation-at-source collection systems, so we work with interested municipalities to establish collection projects and expand PET collection into new areas,” said Petco CEO Cheri Scholtz. “This year so far, we have conducted 28 training workshops for 1,357 waste pickers in eight provinces, and a further three accredited business training workshops.” Municipalities across South Africa are required by law to develop Integrated Waste Management Plans (IWMP) in line with the implementation of the National Waste Management Strategy.
Drakenstein Municipality, in Western Cape Province, is one of the first municipalities to successfully integrate waste pickers into the formal waste industry at municipal level. “As our Material Recovery Facility [MRF] and Refuse Transfer Station become fully functional in 2022/23, these wastepreneurs will be accommodated. They will be able to increase their production and it will also mean that approximately 50 t less material will reach the landfill site,” said Thys Serfontein, Senior Manager, Solid Waste and Landfill Management at Drakenstein Municipality.
In the past year, Petco and its partners diverted 90,402 t of post-consumer PET, equivalent to 2.1 bn bottles, was collected for recycling. This saved 560,495 m3 of municipal landfill space. In addition, R1.2 bn (US $ 70 million) was injected into the national economy from the sale of recycled materials.
