The circular economy – moving beyond landfill diversion

It is now quite well known that many South African cities and towns face a landfill airspace crisis. With population growth, increasing urbanisation, and a growing middle class, waste generation is expected to place an ever-increasing strain on the country’s landfill infrastructure.

By Linda Godfrey, Anton Nahman & Suzan Oelofse*

Many of our disposal sites are also not designed or operated as engineered landfills, but are merely uncontrolled or controlled dumpsites, resulting in unnecessary environmental, social and economic impacts.

Further, it is also well known that the three biggest municipal waste streams – paper and packaging, organic waste, and construction and demolition waste – are easily recyclable, technically. Yet, the majority of these waste streams continue to be disposed of to landfill.

Policy Interventions

South Africa’s policy environment has supported the waste hierarchy and the diversion of waste away from landfill for the past two decades. Recent policy interventions such as the National Waste Management Strategy (2020) and mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for paper and packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, and lighting – and pending EPR for a number of other waste streams including portable batteries, lubricant oils and pesticides (Government Gazettes, March 2022) – have provided further support for waste diversion.

The Chemicals and Waste Phakisa (2017), an initiative of national government, provided a detailed strategy for unlocking opportunities in the waste sector, through the diversion of waste away from landfill. This included, in particular, opportunities for the development of new businesses and the creation of much needed new jobs. One of the key objectives of the Phakisa was to “increase commercialisation of the circular economy and create value from resources currently discarded as waste”.

Local transition

The circular economy, as a concept, has found a lot of traction globally in the last decade. It appeared in the South African landscape around 2013, largely in reference to industrial symbiosis and resource efficiency. The Department of Science and Technology stated in 2014, as part of the development of the Waste Research, Development and Innovation Roadmap, that “South Africa is still largely at the periphery of this global transition towards a circular economy”.

The concept did not find strong political traction in South Africa until 2017. The then Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, noted at a side event of the World Economic Forum on Africa, held in Durban in May 2017, that “South Africa has adopted circular economy as one of our sustainable development models”.

In November 2017, at COP23 in Bonn, Germany, Minister Molewa launched the African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA), reconfirming that “South Africa is committed to its 2030 vision through the National Development Plan of a ‘transition to an environmentally sustainable, climate change resilient, lowcarbon economy and just society’; and from this, to enhance South Africa’s implementation of the circular economy”.

Government’s commitment to transitioning to a more circular economy has continued under the current Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, who, at a World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) + Climate event in 2021, stressed the importance of the circular economy as part of South Africa’s postCovid-19 economic recovery plan.

Defining a circular economy

There are many definitions of the circular economy in use. The definition adopted by the CSIR in its recent circular economy publications is that of Chatham House, who considers a circular economy to be one that “entails keeping materials and products in circulation for as long as possible through practices such as reuse of products, sharing of underused assets, repairing, recycling and remanufacturing”.

The circular economy principles of ‘designing out waste and pollution’, and ‘keeping products and materials in use’ through reuse, repair, remanufacture and recycle, should create significant opportunities to divert products at end-of-life from landfill.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment’s ‘A Circular Economy Guide for the Waste Sector’ (2020) provides insights into circular economy opportunities associated with waste beneficiation. In particular, it looks at opportunities associated with electronic waste, waste plastic, construction and demolition waste, textile waste, organic waste, and various industrial waste streams through industrial symbiosis.

However, one of the greatest misconceptions about the circular economy is that it is primarily about waste recycling or, at best, an alternative term for the implementation of the waste hierarchy. The circular economy is about so much more than waste management. At the heart of it, the circular economy is about sustainable resource management. It asks us to consider how we use resources in support of socio-economic development.

It calls for disruption and innovation in how we design, manufacture and deliver products and services to consumers. It challenges us to change the way we think about product ownership, with a greater emphasis on product sharing, renting, repair, refurbishment and reuse. It calls for a complete paradigm shift, creating opportunities for entirely new business models based on productas-service and access-over-ownership – facilitated through advances in digital technology.

In addition to the first two circular economy principles mentioned above, a third principle entails ‘regenerating natural systems’, through, among others, nature-based solutions. This includes interventions such as regenerative agriculture, biobased materials, green energy, passive water treatment systems, green urban spaces, and restored mining landscapes.

Sustainable development path

The three principles of a circular economy provide a framework against which to reimagine how we use energy, water and materials in various sectors of the economy, including mining, agriculture, manufacturing, human settlements and mobility.

In its simplest form, the circular economy provides us with a means to reduce the tonnages of waste going to landfill, by designing products for longevity and implementing solutions that keep resources circulating within the economy at their highest value.

However, when fully realised, a circular economy provides a development path for South Africa that is less resource- and carbon-intensive and more sustainable, with the potential to create innovative new business models.

The circular economy is therefore about more than simply reducing waste to landfill. Rather, it provides an opportunity to reframe economic development and unlock new opportunities for growth and employment; while achieving global commitments relating to climate change and sustainable development.