WasteAid | South Africa

• The aim of WasteAid’s feasibility study was to support South Africa Plastics Pact  to meet their national recycling targets.
• This study provides insights into the current status of waste management in rural areas of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.
• It details the ways in which it helped to improve the collection and use of low value plastics such as flexible film packets.
• It also highlighted the potential for circular waste management practices to contribute to sustainable development.
• By working on both supply side factors (ensuring separation at source through better education of households, provision of collection bins) as well as demand side factors (training up collectors on the types of plastics that could be sold and on good business management and by connecting them with a cluster of off takers who would commit to regularly buy from the collectors) then you could increase the quantity of plastics collected and the increase the revenue received by the local collector groups
• They evaluate the interventions, identifying opportunities and recommendations for further development of circular approaches to waste management in rural areas of developing countries.
• Results of the behaviour change interventions include:  
  • Community bins drove improved separation and segregation with 20.9% of community members surveyed in an end-line survey using them.
  • Of the 40% who had come into contact with one of the outputs of the behaviour change campaign (murals / skits / music) an encouraging 52% reported a change in attitude or behaviour towards waste / recycling
  • Circa two-thirds of respondents (65.0%) noted a positive change in their environment in the last six months, of which almost half (44.8%) attributed this change in some way to the project – mostly to the presence of the community bins.
  • Littering or dumping remain a highly prevalent issue in the community, indicating there is further work to be done to address the issue more comprehensively.

As administers of the fund, WRAP supported WasteAids’ “Masibambisane” project throughout its delivery by providing guidance and ensuring the timely execution of project activities. WRAP connected us with key local stakeholders and partners vital to the planning and implementation of the project. The WRAP team ensured that our work complied with high ethical and monitoring and evaluation standards, ensuring that the project safeguarded and provided direct benefits to the communities we worked in.

Rebecca Henderson, WasteAid Project Coordinator South Africa