INTEGRATING THE INFORMAL SECTOR INTO THE SOUTH AFRICAN WASTE AND RECYCLING ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY

The document assesses the role of South Africa's informal waste sector, which recovers 80-90% of paper and packaging waste, in the context of planned mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). It warns that traditional EPR models could marginalize waste pickers by creating competition for recyclables. Based on regional workshops, the note identifies four integration scenarios: maintaining the status quo, providing increased support and monitoring, formalizing pickers into co-operatives and SMEs, or absorbing them as employees in the formal sector. It highlights the significant economic value informal pickers provide to municipalities by diverting waste from landfills, while noting the high failure rate of waste co-operatives.

• The informal sector is a primary driver of recycling in South Africa, recovering an estimated 80-90% of paper and packaging waste by weight.
• Implementing traditional Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) models may threaten the livelihoods of waste pickers by introducing competition between formal and informal sectors for the collection and sorting of recyclables.
• Informal waste pickers provided substantial financial savings to South African municipalities in 2014 by diverting packaging waste from landfills, with estimated savings ranging from R309.2 million to R748.8 million depending on the calculated value of landfill airspace.
• Efforts to formalize waste pickers into co-operatives and SMEs have seen limited success, with an estimated 91.8% failure rate for waste and recycling co-operatives.
• South African waste pickers exhibit lower productivity compared to informal workers in other cities; they collect approximately 16-24 tonnes per year, whereas workers in Cairo and Lima collect 54 and 48 tonnes per year, respectively.
• Four potential integration scenarios for the informal sector were identified: maintaining the current marginalized status, providing increased support and monitoring, driving formalization through co-operatives/SMEs, or absorbing pickers as employees within the formal sector.

APA

L., G., W., S., & R., P. (2016). INTEGRATING THE INFORMAL SECTOR INTO THE SOUTH AFRICAN WASTE AND RECYCLING ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY. GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Policy-Brief-Informal-Sector-CSIR-final-Mar-2016-3.pdf

Chicago

L., Godfrey,, Strydom, W., and Phukubye, R. INTEGRATING THE INFORMAL SECTOR INTO THE SOUTH AFRICAN WASTE AND RECYCLING ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY. GreenCape, 2016. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Policy-Brief-Informal-Sector-CSIR-final-Mar-2016-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=L. |first1=Godfrey, |last2=W. |first2=Strydom, |last3=R. |first3=Phukubye, |title=INTEGRATING THE INFORMAL SECTOR INTO THE SOUTH AFRICAN WASTE AND RECYCLING ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY |publisher=GreenCape |date=February 2016 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Policy-Brief-Informal-Sector-CSIR-final-Mar-2016-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{l2016integrating, author = {L., Godfrey, and W., Strydom, and R., Phukubye,}, title = {{INTEGRATING THE INFORMAL SECTOR INTO THE SOUTH AFRICAN WASTE AND RECYCLING ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2016}, month = feb, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Policy-Brief-Informal-Sector-CSIR-final-Mar-2016-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }