Weekly Newsletter on Circular Waste Management in Africa #17-2023

South Africa

Publication of the South Africa’s 8th?National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report (NIR). The report contains a detailed inventory of South Africa’s annual greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 to 2020. In South Africa the total Waste sector emissions for 2020 were 23 046 Gg CO2e. Most of these emissions are from Solid waste disposal contributing 18 253 Gg CO2e (79.2%) of the total Waste sector emissions. Wastewater treatment and discharge contributed a further 4 458 Gg CO2e of waste emissions while open burning of waste contributed 335 Gg CO2e. Emissions from biological treatment of solid waste were estimated to be insignificant (0.0011) Gg CO2e. ?Solid waste disposal emissions have increased 34.1% since 2000. Incineration and open burning of waste emissions increased by 90.2% since 2000, while emissions from Wastewater treatment and discharge remained stable throughout the time series. This is largely driven by increases of 42.6% in Domestic wastewater treatment emissions, whilst there was a 54.2% decline in Industrial wastewater treatment and discharge. More to read: ?https://www.dffe.gov.za/mediarelease/creecy_sa8greenhousegasinventoryreport

In the world

Global waste zero cities summit planned on May 31, 2023, 7-11 GMT (Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe), 16-20 GMT (Americas). Together with experts and advocates, the debates will be around (i) the latest developments on zero waste as a proven, cost-effective strategy to both reduce waste pollution?and?(ii) how to help cities reach their climate goals. The online summit will allow municipal officials, zero waste implementers, and fellow changemakers to discuss. Registration: https://whova.com/web/w84eO3SkMxSrkPrT7UioqyhJnf6l9XOQqOIlttkefJs%3D/

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The Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, which is part of EPA’s Series on Building a Circular Economy for All, provides voluntary actions that can be implemented in the United States aimed at eliminating the release of plastic waste from land-based sources into the environment by 2040. More to read: ?https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-04/Draft_National_Strategy_to_Prevent_Plastic_Pollution_Executive_Summary.pdf#:~:text=The%20Draft%20National%20Strategy%20to%20Prevent%20Plastic%20Pollution%2C,environment%2C%20particularly%20for%20communities%20already%20overburdened%20by%20pollution.

Ghana is proposing a Global Plastic Pollution Fee in the legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. ?A sort of global EPR scheme?that would be funded by a levy on plastic producers (not producers of products) and pay for management of all waste streams – not just plastics and packaging.?An approach inspired in part by the ‘pollution gap’ concept. The fund, it is claimed, could generate up to $300 Billion a year to help fund development of a comprehensive waste management system and infrastructure. Just how such a global fund for waste management would resource and drive effective EPR schemes would be up to each country to define and decide. More to read: https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/41775/Ghanasubmission.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

The latest guidance on national planning and implementation issued by the?GloLitter?Partnerships ?project has been published. The two newly launched guides are designed to help countries in their efforts to prevent and reduce sea-based marine plastic litter (SBMPL).??The?Guidance?Document?on the Country Status Assessment on SBMPL ?focuses on how to prepare a detailed Country Status Assessment on marine plastic litter. The guide includes an overview of the international legislative frameworks that prevent and reduce SBMPL from ships and wastes as defined by?MARPOL Annex V ?and the?London Convention/Protocol ?(LC/LP), as well as the relevant?Food and Agriculture Organization ?(FAO) codes and guidelines. More to read: https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/Pages/WhatsNew-1873.aspx

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The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has criticized the UK government’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) DEFRA proposals, warning that householders will foot the ￡1.7 billion bill without seeing recycling improvements. The BRC, whose members include Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, has instead set out six alternative reforms which it said are needed to create a “fit for the future” waste management system. The BRC’s plan includes a call for government to link payments to improvements in local authority recycling improvements. This indicates there could be some friction between councils and producers under the system, if the former is obliged to cover the costs of dealing with packaging but do not see recycling rates improve. ?EPR only makes sense if done alongside improvements to household waste collection. Once this is in place, the UK should consider a new deposit return scheme to fill any gaps. More to read: ?https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/households-will-foot-1-7bn-epr-bill-retailers-warn/

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The Africa Group (except Egypt) co proposed response to the INC 2 meetings is out and highlights several proposals, among them the prohibition of practices such as open burning, incineration, firing in coal-fired power plants and other waste-to-energy processes, co-processing in cement kilns, and chemical recycling. More to read: https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/41840/AfricaGroupSubmission.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

France

Release of the National Recycling Report (NBR) 2008 - 2019 and Life Cycle Analysis of recycled waste streams. The report presents the developments in recycling of different materials: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, inert construction and wood. More to read: https://librairie.ademe.fr/dechets-economie-circulaire/5233-bilan-national-du-recyclage-bnr-2010-2019.html

What are the levers for the environmental performance of packaging between single use and reuse? french Experts from the European Paper Packaging Alliance debate with French policy makers based on a Ramboll analysis. However, the Ramboll analysis is not clear on which real hypothesis the results are based (Ramboll announces a hypothesis of 50 reuses and a return rate of 50% but if the packaging comes back only once out of 2, it will statistically only make 2 reuses). More to listen: https://www.trombinoscope.com/les-videos-du-trombinoscope/ . A more thorough LCA approach report available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344922006942

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The function of state censor in Producer Responsibility Organizations was introduced in 2003 after a governance crisis within the packaging PRO. The State censor attends meetings of the board of directors of approved PROs and may request communication of any document related to the financial management of the organization; any PROs will only be able to make secure investments under conditions validated by the board of directors after informing the State censor. More in details, the functions of State censor are exercised by members of the general economic and financial control service, whose head appoints a State censor to each approved PRO; the State censor ensures that approved eco-organizations have, throughout the duration of their approval, the financial capacity that has enabled them to hold an approval; the approved eco-organization communicates to the State censor, at his request, all necessary documents and information; the State censor may have any audit carried out in connection with his mission; it shall submit a report to the Ministers responsible for ecology, industry and health, whenever it considers it necessary. More to read: https://www.economie.gouv.fr/cgefi/fonction-censeur-detat-dans-eco-organismes

EPR Tires sector: a draft specification in consultation. As a reminder, the decree brings two notable advances: the integration of silage tires into the sector and the involvement of distributors in the recovery of tire waste. The specifications also mention the establishment of an operational technical committee (CTO), associating representatives of tire waste management operators and those of professional agricultural bodies concerned with the management of silage tire waste. More to read:?https://www.banquedesterritoires.fr/filiere-rep-pneumatiques-un-projet-de-cahier-des-charges-en-consultation?pk_campaign=newsletter_quotidienne&pk_kwd=2023-04-27&pk_source=Actualit%C3%A9s_Localtis&pk_medium=newsletter_quotidienne

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E-commerce: Environmental impacts of logistics, transport and travel: The study made it possible to draw up an inventory of the activity at the operational level, establish a reference framework for quantitative assessment of the environmental impacts of supply chains, and then design a tool for simulating scenarios and assessing their impacts. Finally, on the basis of an analysis of the literature, simulations carried out with the tool and workshops organized with the actors of the sector, the most promising levers for improvement were identified. https://presse.ademe.fr/2023/04/e-commerce-un-outil-pour-evaluer-et-reduire-limpact-environnemental-de-la-logistique-des-transports-et-des-deplacements.html et https://librairie.ademe.fr/mobilite-et-transport/6261-commerce-en-ligne-impacts-environnementaux-de-la-logistique-des-transports-et-des-deplacements.html