South African Municipal Waste Management Systems: Challenges and Solutions

South Africa is estimated to generate domestically a total of 12.7 million tonnes of waste per annum. In the country, municipalities are facing increasing pressures and challenges to provide waste management services due to the growing waste generation. Every year approximately 3.67 million tonnes of this waste are not collected and treated through formal waste collection systems, resulting in large amounts being dumped illegally.

Accordingly, South Africa Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) have partnered to enhanced municipal solid waste management. During this collaboration, local municipalities’ challenges and systems failures were identified, and potential solutions investigated to inform the implementation of interventions by UNEP in country office. This report provides a summary of the findings.