The National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) launched an Industrial Symbiosis Programme (ISP) with the North West provincial government and local municipalities to enable sustainable waste disposal in that province.

The programme has now been implemented in all nine provinces, with the Western Cape supported by non-profit organisation Green Cape.  

With South Africa producing millions of tonnes of waste a year, the ISP promotes circularity, diverts waste from landfills and creates entrepreneurship opportunities by facilitating synergetic relationships between companies with underutilised resources and those requiring these resources to produce other goods.

In 2022, an estimated 215 000 t of waste were diverted from landfills through industrial symbiosis initiatives in South Africa. The waste is used by other entities, often small and microenterprises, as inputs for various products and processes. 

NCPC-SA national programme manager Victor Manavhela explains that municipalities in urban areas are often well resourced in terms of waste collection and disposal, but urban areas also generate significant refuse, resulting in a shortage of space designated for waste.

Moreover, municipalities in rural areas face different challenges, owing to them not being as well-resourced as urban areas.

This means that waste collection services are often located further away from villages and towns, with no space specifically designated for waste disposal, leading to waste being littered and, consequently, ending up in water courses such as rivers.

To this end, Manavhela posits that industrial symbiosis can make waste management more efficient in these areas and encourage the sorting of waste at source, thereby mitigating the dumping of refuse in the environment and promoting circularity.

“Waste disposal challenges persist in rural and urban settings in South Africa and our environment continues to deteriorate as a result,” Manavhela notes.

Through continuous research, the NCPC-SA aims to create value in waste streams to help reduce existing waste pools in South Africa.

“These programmes can fill the gap in South Africa’s circular economy by connecting waste producers and offtakers. As a result, waste does not end up in a landfill, but is repurposed or directed to an offtaker, who can use these materials within their own production means,” he points out.

“Building a circular economy through industrial symbiosis is crucial for achieving a just, equitable and sustainable society, as well as for levelling the playing field for startups and small companies,” he adds.