Weekly bulletin on waste management in Africa & Transition to a Circular Economy #08-2023

France

Three years ago, the "anti-waste law for a circular economy" was passed. A necessary law to transform our linear “produce, consume, throw away” economy into a circular economy. The "AGEC" law has considerably accelerated the change in our production and consumption model: it provides answers to the expectations of the French in terms of ecology through measures of daily life, thanks to a concrete ecology that preserves resources. and purchasing power. It also makes it possible to rethink production models, by inviting producers to ask themselves the question of upstream and anticipate the end of life of the products they put on the market. Today, several measures are already part of our daily lives. Others are being deployed, with the same goal: to put an end to all forms of waste. 10 measures of the anti-waste law already at work: 1 Prohibition by 2023 ?of ?several single-use plastic products and single use plastic packaging by 2040; 2 End of disposable tableware in restaurants by 2023, especially fast food restaurants, for meals eaten on site; 3 Removal of plastic packaging around fruits and vegetables that can be sold in bulk. 4. Deployment of a new info sorting info on the majority of everyday products to simplify sorting, give a second life to used products and improve recycling; 5 Generalization of the collection of all category of plastic packaging (PP,PEHD, etc..) in one single yellow bin (French customers consume 1.2 million tons of plastic packaging/year whereas South African Customers consume 2,4 million tons); 6 repairability index on 9 electronic products, to better inform consumers and extend the life of products; 7 Obligations for manufacturers to put detailed information on the environmental characteristics of products online, and for example for textiles and the geographical traceability of the various stages of manufacture; 8 Prohibition on destroying of non-food unsold items; 9. The "repair bonus" for electrical and electronic devices and 10 Implementation of in-store take-back of several everyday objects: furniture, toys, sports and leisure items, DIY and gardening items and to repair and restore these used products, reuse financing funds of 50 million euros per year are intended for associations and companies in the social and solidarity economy. More to read: https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/trois-ans-loi-anti-gaspillage-economie-circulaire-des-transformations-loeuvre-et-venir-0

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The French Government has passed a law banning the use of throwaway wrappers/single-use packaging and replace with reusable cutlery and plates in fast food restaurants (McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks and Subway, KFC..) from 1st January 2023. The law is part of the country’s efforts to reduce plastic and other types of waste. Effective from 1 January, the law prohibits major fast-food chains from offering foods in throwaway boxes or single-use cutlery such as knives or forks. Restaurants that can serve more than 20 customers at a time will start offering reusable plates, cups and cutlery instead of single-use items. More to read: https://www.optimistdaily.com/2023/01/frances-ban-on-single-use-restaurant-tableware-is-a-fast-food-revolution/ ?

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France has 17 operational EPR schemes. See below the list of the Producer Responsibility Organizations. More to read: https://expertises.ademe.fr/sites/default/files/assets/documents/extended-producer-responsibility-scheme-pros.pdf

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“The price of recycled plastics does not depend on that of oil”. The SRP (Syndicate of Plastics Regenerators) is a national professional union that brings together industrial plastics regenerators and represents 80% of the profession. In terms of volume, the members of the SRP produced, in 2021, 537,000 tons of Material Plastic Recovery, by recycling different types of plastics such as low and high density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, PVC, PET, and some diverse products. While various European directives will oblige manufacturers of plastic products to systematically incorporate MPRs in their products, challenges are recurring, in terms of volume, quality and price for recycled plastic materials. More to read: https://www-techniques--ingenieur-fr.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.techniques-ingenieur.fr/actualite/articles/le-cours-des-matieres-plastiques-recyclees-ne-depend-pas-de-celui-du-petrole-119949/amp/

South Africa

2022 waste market intelligence report. This report provides insights into Cape Town’s waste sector in particular, but also into South Africa’s and the Western Cape’s waste sector. The report outlines market opportunities to be considered by investors active or interested in providing waste beneficiation solutions. More to read: https://green-cape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/WASTE_MIR_7_4_22_FINAL-3.pdf

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The 2021 annual report from SA Plastic Pact is out. It is part of a global network spearheaded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. It is a collaboration of 24 business members, organizations, representing key role-players right across the plastic packaging value chain, that are working towards a circular economy for plastics in the country. The report displays monitoring data of 4 targets from brand owner and retailer members accounting for 27.9% of plastic packaging placed on the market in South Africa. More to read: https://www.esi-africa.com/reports/south-africa-plastic-pollution-on-the-decline-but-more-to-be-done/

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BiobiN South Africa, with their in-vessel composting unit, has announced that it is working with different sectors by talking?about the impacts of load shedding and what businesses can do to manage increased volumes of organic waste. More to read: https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/publicity/153410/biobin-south-africa-raises-awareness-on-high-volumes-of-organic-waste

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In the world

A webinar on 15/3/2023 at 11-13 CET to dive into plastic toxicity and discuss the efforts to regulate chemicals in plastics in Europe and in the Global South. Plastic waste and plastic pollution are a well-known environmental and health risk. Negotiations for a United Nations Treaty on plastic pollution have started recently. However, the toxicity of plastics and their impacts on health and the environment do not have such a high recognition. During this webinar, we will learn what a plastic is from a chemicals perspective, dive into its toxicity and efforts to regulate chemicals in plastics in Europe and have the opportunity to discuss with NGOs working to tackle this problem in the Global South. More to read at: https://eeb.org/webinar-on-chemicals-and-plastics-15-march-online/

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The Recycling Partnership supports the adoption of well-designed, effective, efficient, and equitable recycling policies in USA. It develops data-driven findings to inform and guide policy discussions around EPR. Currently, local governments and taxpayers bear the operational and financial responsibility for the recycling and disposal of packaging?(including plastic, glass, aluminum, and steel) and printed paper.?There are different kind of schemes according to the different states. Smart and well-designed means having feedback loop (Colorado) as opposed to a top-down model that dictates how the schemes run (best example of Maine). The report was not out to analyze producer-run versus non-producer-run systems, but I would say the most successful EPR programs are producer-run. PROs are heavily regulated in all of these systems by an advisory council, which gives guidance for what they’re doing (example in Oregon). The study of EPR for printed paper and packaging (PPP) in seven jurisdictions worldwide and in six U.S. states can be downloaded here: https://share.hsforms.com/1LU-wfnECR_WaaLWHC2A_cQchah6?__hstc=89980932.978462f0008bfa581eca7bc434a1ee69.1675573789177.1676089801041.1677325338089.6&__hssc=89980932.1.1677325338089&__hsfp=3125169226.

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Environmental justice is a growing operational factor. As the waste and recycling industry increasingly faces environmental justice considerations,?the regulatory definitions that underpin this discussion can vary state-by-state —?both in terminology and scope. From the U.S. EPA?to the state level,?legal language varies around communities considered to be in environmental justice or disadvantaged areas. The concept is universal, but implications can vary. More to read?: https://www.wastedive.com/news/environmental-justice-definition-epa-disadvantage-community/642809/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202023-02-22%20Waste%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:48239%5D&utm_term=Waste%20Dive

Towards more inclusive and resilient African cities: Valorizing the informal sector as a critical lever for food system transformation. Online discussion at the 9th African Regional Forum for Sustainable Development (ARFSD-9) Recognizing that the informal sector is a crucial part of the solution, but is largely absent from planning and governance processes, TMG's Urban Food Futures program works with diverse actors in three African cities (Nairobi, Cape Town and Ouagadougou) to co-design and implement contextualized solutions to food security and other pressing challenges in informal and low-income urban settings. Webinar 26/2/2023. More to read: https://tmg-thinktank.com/events/towards-more-inclusive-and-resilient-african-cities-valorizing-the-informal ?

A new ITU Academy course on ‘introduction to e-waste policy’. It will be a key resource for policy makers and relevant stakeholders to understand the foundation of EPR and to look deeper into the requirements of an EPR system. The course will be provided as part of ITU's technical assistance to nations in producing e-waste policy and regulation. The course bases EPR as the policy principle in e-waste systems following global trends and e-waste discourse. More to read: https://academy.itu.int/training-courses/full-catalogue/deep-dive-extended-producer-responsibility-epr-principle-e-waste-management

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Towards a better definition and calculation of recycling. Recycling is any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes, excluding energy recovery and reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations. The development of innovative technologies, such as multi-output recycling technologies (e.g., chemical recycling), calls for increasing clarity on several aspects of the definition. For instance, the current rules for calculating the amount of recycled municipal waste state that in case of multi-output processes the quantity recycled shall be determined by a mass balance approach. However, mass balance rules are not provided. Lack of sufficiently clear guidelines also apply to compostable plastic waste and quality of recycling. This lack of clarity is an obstacle to the conception of robust policy measures addressing recycling and circular economy. To close the gaps, this study contains technical proposals for i) calculation rules to perform mass balance for reporting of recycling rate in multi-output processes and ii) clarifications of the recycling calculation rules for biodegradable waste. In addition, the study presents an estimation of the impacts of the changes proposed and a preliminary framework to address quality of recycling. More to read: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC131531