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Governing plastics differently: A strategic blueprint for South Africa's circular economy transition
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This study reviews South Africa's laws and policies on plastic waste and proposes ways to improve them. It suggests better enforcement, support for waste reclaimers, possible deposit-return systems, and limits on certain single-use plastics, offering a step-by-step plan rather than proof that these changes would work.
South Africa stands at a pivotal moment in its transition towards a circular plastics economy. Despite a comparatively extensive legislative and policy framework for waste management, persistent implementation gaps, uneven enforcement capacity, infrastructure constraints and variable municipal performance continue to impede efforts to reduce plastic pollution. This study develops an evidence-informed strategic framework for strengthening South Africa's plastics governance through qualitative analysis of domestic legislation, policy and institutional evidence, supported by comparative international experience. The analysis identifies opportunities to strengthen implementation of existing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements, municipal waste-management capacity, monitoring systems and waste-reclaimer integration, alongside conditional policy options including pilot evaluation of deposit-return systems (DRS), targeted controls on problematic single-use plastics and microplastic sources, reuse and refill systems, and selected fiscal and market instruments. Greater legislative coordination is also considered, including assessment of whether identified governance gaps are better addressed through a dedicated National Plastics Act or strengthened coordination of existing environmental legislation. A phased, scenario-based roadmap is proposed to support sequencing according to institutional readiness, implementation evidence, economic feasibility and distributional effects. The framework does not establish the causal effectiveness or economic optimality of the proposed interventions; rather, it provides a structured basis for evaluating and progressively strengthening plastics governance under South African conditions. Particular emphasis is placed on socially inclusive implementation, including meaningful participation and livelihood protection for waste reclaimers, alongside improved environmental monitoring, regulatory accountability and circular material management.
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A comparative analysis of Rwanda and Germany's plastic governance models found that strict bans with civic enforcement and advanced EPR schemes with deposit-return systems both successfully reduce plastic pollution, offering transferable lessons for South Africa's underdeveloped microplastic regulation. This matters because effective national governance frameworks are essential to curbing the microplastic inputs that ultimately reach marine and human systems.
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Researchers interviewed government, industry, academic and community representatives in Bangladesh about plastic waste management, and reviewed policy documents and international examples. The study identified challenges like poor sorting infrastructure and weak enforcement, and proposed a framework involving waste pickers, recycling investment, and producer responsibility rules.
Introduction
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This book chapter introduces the concept of a circular plastic economy for sub-Saharan Africa, arguing that recycling-focused solutions need to be adapted to local infrastructure and waste management realities. Developing effective plastic waste management in this region is critical to reducing the ocean plastic pollution that Africa contributes.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.