the Republic of South Africa

Specific Measures:
UNIDO project on Support for transitioning from conventional plastics to more environmentally sustainable alternatives.
 
Funded by the Government of Japan, this 3-year project (initiated in 2020) supports the identification and implementation of opportunities for sustainable alternative materials, including bioplastics, and will support the implementation of the Industry Waste Management Plan of the plastic packaging industry by building up the capacity to increase the quality and amount of recyclables.

Specific Measures:
National Waste Management Strategy
Brief Description:
The Strategy promotes alternatives to landfilling, composting and energy recovery options, promoting approaches to the design and packaging of products that reduce waste and encourage reuse, repair, and recycling.

Specific Measures:
Microplastics research
Brief Description:
Establishment of micro-plastics laboratories: this initiative under the Commonwealth Litter Programme will enhance research on micro-plastic pollution and offer opportunities for scientific training and capacity-building with the DFFE and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

■ Regulatory Measures (ex: production ban, Ban on use..etc)
Brief Description:　Plastic Carrier and Flat Bags
In 2003, South Africa introduced the plastic bag regulations in a bold move to address the challenge of plastic bag litter. The regulations essentially made the provision of thicker, more durable plastic bags compulsory. The compulsory specification was subsequently developed prescribing that only plastic carrier bags and flat bags of the minimum thickness of 24 microns can be manufactured or imported into the country.

■　Economic Measures (levy, tax, subsidies…etc.)
Brief Description:　Single use plastic bag levy
The levy was first introduced in 2003 and is currently set at R0.32 (32 cents) per bag.

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Specific Measures:
The DFFE has published the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations together with Section 18 Notices. The regulations apply to electrical, electronic, lighting, paper, packaging and certain single-use product sectors and recognise the mechanisms of waste pickers' role in collecting recyclables and will assist in integration of waste pickers into the waste management system.

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Specific Measures:
National Waste Management Strategy promotes alternatives to landfilling, composting and energy recovery options, promoting approaches to the design and packaging of products that reduce waste and encourage reuse, repair and recycling.

Specific Measures:
Waste management practices across the country are analyzed in terms of the waste management hierarchy. The key elements of the waste hierarchy are as follows:

1. Waste avoidance and reduction
2. Re-use
3. Recycling
4. Recovery
5. Treatment and Disposal

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The Department is part of the project titled “Mainstreaming Climate-Resilient Blue Economy in the BCLME Region (BCLME IV Project)” and will be contributing to the component focused on the Improvement of coastal and marine pollution management in the BCLME. The primary objectives of the project are:

1. Reducing the impacts of litter on the coastal and marine environment and ecosystem health by implementing river basin wide interventions to recover land-based and riverine based litter, thereby reducing marine litter loads, and reducing litter generation at source.
2. Implement a pilot project aimed at reducing marine litter by intercepting land-derived litter within the broader Saldanha Bay hotspot area (north of St Helena Bay to about Cape Agulhas) (as per the 2021 TDA).

 
The Department embarked on an initiative to contribute toward marine pollution prevention by tackling the litter (especially plastic litter) along rivers and other waterways. The Source to Sea Litter Combatting Project was implemented in the district coastal municipalities of KwaZulu-Natal province over a period of 6 months. The Project mobilised youth to recover litter from hotspot areas along the rivers and other waterways.
 
The Department conducts beach clean-ups on a regular basis. In addition, clean-ups are done when there have been flood events in which plastic waste is washed onto beaches in large volumes from river systems. In South Africa, there are NGO’s which are created specifically to do beach clean-ups.
 
National Working for the Coast Programme: a job creation initiative targeting women, youth, and persons with disabilities, focusing on promoting responsible coastal management through regular collection of litter on along South Africa’s beaches and waterways.
 
Good Green Deeds programme: a nationwide programme aimed at mobilising the public to clean local communities and raise awareness around illegal dumping and waste management.
 
Annual International Coastal Clean-up Day: celebrated in the 3rd week of September each year.

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Specific Measures:
There are currently no active projects specifically focused on retrieval efforts in the ocean. However, there are citizen science programmes looking at retrieval on beaches.

Specific Measures:
South Africa, along with several other African countries, aims to incorporate gear-marking and retrieval incentives into its fisheries management plans.

Specific Measures:
There are currently no specific policy provisions or mechanisms addressing recycling of ALDFG in South Africa. However, through citizen science projects, ALDFG is recovered where possible. Recoverable materials such as metals are recycled, and the remainder is responsibly disposed of. Additionally, a new on-site fishing net recycling facility is being developed at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, led by the OCEAN Action Network in partnership with Ocean Plastic Technologies which will recycle used fishing nets into raw materials for new products.

Brief Description:
Yes, see applicable legislation below:

• National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 59 of 2008
• Section 11(1)(g)(vi) of the National Ports Act, Act No 12 of 2005
• Port Rules Chapter 4, Section 89

Brief Description:

• Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA). Vessels must declare their waste before entering the ports in terms of MARPOL.
• Then TNPA will handle galley and general waste in 6 of the 8 ports, then 57 section licenses will handle other streams of waste as classified in MARPOL.

Brief Description:
MARPOL requires that Ports make adequate provisions for waste reception facilities. According to the guidelines for port reception facility providers (MEPC.1/Circ.834/Rev.1), providing suitably sealed receptacles and ensuring that MARPOL waste can be transported and disposed of in line with the applicable regulations.
 
TNPA has galley waste reception facilities, in 6 of the 8 ports that handle kitchen waste and general waste, together classified as hazardous waste that is disposed of in a hazardous landfill site.

Volume of Waste Collected:
The total Galley waste reported by TNPA for the 23/24 Financial Year:
+- 1200 tons (excluding waste handled by section 57 Licensees)
Percentage of Ports with Waste Reception Facilities:
75%

Brief Description:
TNPA has receptacles for galley waste and will also take general waste and treat it as hazardous waste that will be disposed of in Hazardous landfill sites. Section 57 Licensees for Waste Disposal will handle other waste streams that will be disposed in accordance with the National Environmental Management Waste Act, 59 of 2008.

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Specific Measures:
DFFE and The Alliance to End Plastic Waste have entered into an MoU to support each other towards improving waste minimisation and recycling in South Africa. Both parties have been working together on many platforms that are intended to grow the contribution of the informal sector. The two organisations have interacted with Municipalities, SMME, especially Cooperatives, with an intention to assist them in identifying opportunities in the waste sector.
 
MoU between DFFE and Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA) is to encourage and promote cooperative activities between the two Parties in the fields of Chemicals and Waste Management, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Development and integrated waste management activities on the basis of mutual benefit, equality and reciprocity and in accordance with the applicable domestic law and relevant international agreements of the respective Parties.

Specific Measures:
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), has gained popularity as a policy or voluntary
practice that seeks to reduce waste in the environment by holding producers (companies) financially, and sometimes also operationally, responsible for recovering their products and packaging for recycling or disposal. The rationale is that EPR systems can incentivize companies to improve the packaging and products they generate.
 
The EPR regulations obligate the Producer Responsibility Organisation to compensate waste collectors, reclaimers or pickers, who register with the National Registration Database, for collection services and environmental benefits, through the collection service fee.

Specific Measures:
Good Green Deeds programme: a nationwide programme aimed at mobilising the public to clean local communities and raise awareness around illegal dumping and waste management.
 
The National Consumer Awareness is a demonstration of ensuring the purchaser or buyer knows about the information about items and products so that they will be aware of how they are disposed of.

Specific Measures:
Science review of marine plastic pollution research in South Africa: led by the National Department of Science and Technology through the CSIR’s Waste Innovation Roadmap, this study reviewed the sources and pathways of plastic marine litter, transport, and fate of marine plastic litter, impacts on biota and ecology, economic impacts and monitoring methods. The findings were published in the May / June 2020 special edition of the South African Journal of Science and highlighted the gaps in knowledge and research opportunities for the future.
 
The Department's Ocean’s & Coasts Research has partnered widely nationally to extend the reach of sampling into different environments to bring in more human resources with a common goal or mutual beneficial goal. Research has also partnered widely internationally through the UN Ocean Decade Project and the UN IAEA NUTEC project. There have been very targeted partnerships to reach infrastructure or skills that are required for projects that are more academic in nature but are generating a tool for monitoring for:

1. The UNISA partnership gives a completely new method to the global community potentially showing the impact of plastics on the foodweb,
2. The partnership with North-West University shows the impact of floating plastic forming new environments for organisms to grow on and thereby moving from one area to another much like ballast water does in ships, and the potential for harmful organisms to grow, and
3. The partnership with CSIR allows us a remote monitoring tool to continuously monitor the oceans for patches of floating plastic (SDG 14,.1.1.b obligations).

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Brief Description:
Identify material substitution opportunities for identified product(s) with a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). It is a component of the Project titled Supporting the transition from conventional plastics to more environmentally sustainable alternatives, funded by the Government of Japan and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and carried out in collaborations by the Council on Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University of Witwatersrand (WITS). The overall purpose of the project is to support South Africa’s transition from conventional plastics to more environmentally sustainable alternatives with the goal of reducing the amount of plastic leaking into the environment.

Brief Description:

Plastics material flow and end of life management 2017 study that seeks to determine the current quantities, use and types of plastics in South Africa, including both locally manufactured and imported, and to determine possible future management of end-of-life plastics in alignment with best practices.

Specific Measures:
■ Established a Monitoring/Reporting Program/Mechanism
■ Regularly Conduct Monitoring/Estimation/Scientific Research
■ Conduct Monitoring/Scientific Research

Scope: ■ Local ■ National ■ Regional■ International ■ Macro Plastics ■ Microplastics （<5㎜） ■ Ocean ■ others: rivers, soils, air etc.

Brief Description:
The Department's Ocean’s & Coasts (OC) Research is leading the monitoring of macro-, meso-, and micro-plastics in coastal, and other environments that could cause leakage of plastics into the sea [source to sea]. This is conducted at a national level through the South African (Macro-, Meso-, and Micro-) Plastics (SAMP) Network. Led by OC Research this is a network of scientists willing to use comparable methods in multiple ecosystems [beach, water, river, sediment, catchment, etc.] thereby giving comparable data for national monitoring of plastics leakage and contributing to UN SDG 14.1.1.b. OC Research and the SAMP Network have a number of infrastructure items that are required for this type of monitoring with OC Research poised to conduct training in comparable methods over the next year throughout the country. The data will filter into the OC Marine and Information Management System (MIMS), which meets international standards and is the recognised database by Stats SA for SDG 14.1.1.b. A subset of the monitoring, the monitoring of surface water and beach sand forms part of an inter-regional (16 African countries) and global project (99 countries) that agree to monitor at least 1 site, twice a year and provide that data to UN SDG14.1.1.b. All 99 countries will or have received the infrastructure for this monitoring from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Due to South Africa’s advanced nature in this research area OC Research will be the hub for Southern African and gain critical skills in isotopic and nuclear techniques which will allow us to monitor even smaller plastics in the environment and use Pb210 dating to get a 100-year picture of the number of plastics that have been in the environment on our shores. All data generated by the African region will be housed in MIMS. OC Research together with MIMS is assisting IAEA to develop their NUTEC plastics database. Below is a diagram of these different research projects within OC Research:
 

 
Challenges (if applicable):
The biggest challenge to monitoring plastics is generating comparable data. There could be many scientific studies but unless their methods are the same or harmonised the data is not comparable to each other. This makes data from different environments, different times, and different researchers not comparable and therefore just a once- or twice-off of data, not information on the change of plastic leakage in space and time. The above projects aim to direct resources to address this challenge.

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Specific Measures:
In March 2022, Heads of States, Environment Ministers and representatives from 175 countries endorsed a Resolution 5/14 at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi to negotiate an internationally binding agreement to end plastic pollution.
 
In UNEA Resolution 5/14, governments requested the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to convene an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC). Its mandate was to develop an internationally legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (referred to as the instrument). The INC was to commence its work during the second half of 2022, with the ambition of completing it by the end of 2024. Thereafter it will be adopted and opened for signature at a Conference of the Plenipotentiaries (COP) in 2025. The process was not completed in 2024 with plans to complete INC5.2 in August 2025.

Specific Measures:
The interests of the African region in the multilateral negotiations on INC are represented by the Africa Group, also known as the African Group of Negotiators (AGN). The AGN is a ‘block’ of countries, made up of the 54 member states of Africa. The AGN originates in the UN General Assembly, where it is one of the regional blocks. The AGN is also active in other multilateral environmental agreements, like the UNFCCC. In the context of multilateral plastic treaty negotiations, the AGN is a party to the INC, as it was established to speak with a common and unified voice for the African region.