Weekly Newsletter on Circular Waste Management in Africa, France and G20 countries #14-2024

South Africa

Eco-Friendly Lighting Solutions in South Africa and Light bulb recycling has been globally mandated for decades, but thousands of broken bulbs still end up in municipal landfills every year. Unfortunately, it has proven challenging to restrict lighting from domestic waste streams and educate consumers on better disposal methods. Now, many governments are taking a new approach to raising recycling rates. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) gets the private sector involved. South Africa introduced EPR regulations for the lighting industry in 2021. This regulation underpins the many voluntary take-back schemes for light bulbs, batteries, and other hazardous waste that were already in action. Diverting lighting waste from landfills is crucial to raw material recovery. More to read: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/eco-friendly-lighting-solutions-south-africa-ewasa-eiocf/?trackingId=QAnx0VHxzW5uBUJqs7qriw%3D%3D

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The presentation of the recently approved industrial waste tyre management plan is now for stakeholder engagement. Developed in accordance with Section 29 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 2008 (NEM: WA), the plan aims to address several challenges faced by the waste tyre sector, including limited local processing capacity, storage depot limitations, and logistical constraints. More to read: https://www.dffe.gov.za/mediareleases/creecy_industrywastetyremanagementplan?s=09

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SECO commits funding for the second phase of the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Program. A journey towards inclusive and sustainable industrial development in South Africa continues as the second phase of GEIPP II. More to read: https://www.industrialefficiency.co.za/2024/03/28/seco-commits-funding-for-the-second-phase-of-the-global-eco-industrial-parks-programme/

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?France

French Carbios unveils major innovation in polyester recycling with new textile preparation line. To streamline the textile preparation phase, which is currently carried out by hand or on several lines, Carbios has developed a fully integrated and automated line that transforms textile waste from used garments or cutting scraps into raw material suitable for depolymerization with its enzymatic biorecycling process.? This patented line integrates all preparation stages (shredding and extraction of hard points such as buttons or fasteners), and provides Carbios with a high-performance, scalable development tool. The platform will help validate the biorecycling technology for textiles at demonstration plant scale (by 2024), and provides Carbios with expertise in working with collection and sorting operators to specify the quality of textiles and the preparation steps needed to make them suitable for enzymatic recycling. This expertise will also be invaluable to brands in the eco-design of their products. More to read: https://www.carbios.com/en/

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Extended Producer Responsibility, a single-use instrument? : the institutionalization of a method of financing household waste management. This thesis focuses on a public policy instrument allowing the financing of the management of certain wastes in France. In concrete terms, EPR takes the form of an organization by sector, which sees these producers set up private law companies, the producer responsibility organization (PRO) responsible for providing for or contributing to waste management on their behalf. These PROs are non-profit organizations, which draw their resources from fees levied on producers. For thirty years now, the EPR model has been strengthened and extended. Today, it represents a budget of several billion euros, all sectors combined. At the same time, waste management as a policy area is evolving. At the end of the twentieth century, recovery (recycling and incineration) was seen as a viable and legitimate technical solution, but its dominance is disappearing in favor of waste prevention and reuse. Promoted through the concept of circular economy, these methods of waste management (and, extensively, resources) call into question the economic and legal model in force at the time when they are supported by public action. In particular, they weaken the principles of free movement of goods and free enterprise, since they impose regulatory or financial constraints on private actors marketing goods, in the name of pollution carried out "downstream", by the consumer himself when he disposes of his waste, or by waste management companies when they take charge of the latter. In this context, the way EPR is instrumented is a double exception: to the circular economy, since it essentially contributes to the recovery of waste rather than to its prevention or reuse, but also to economic liberalism, since it obliges producers in the name of environmental protection. By examining the institutional and political modalities of integrating the circular economy model within the EPR instrument, this thesis answers two theoretical questions arising from this observation. The first concerns the political construction of exceptions to economic liberalism and their mode of legitimation. The second relates to the place of instruments in public action and their role in configuring interests and ideas. Through a historical study of the "life" of the EPR instrument, as well as an in-depth examination of some of its dimensions (economic, legal), we show that the instrument produces its own strengths and limitations. It generates a capacity for action for certain public and private actors, while restricting the scope of the environmental ambitions attributed to it. In this sense, EPR is a "single-use instrument". More to read: https://theses.hal.science/tel-04529187

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Plastic pollution: the important part of the textile industry. The General Inspectorate for the Environment and Sustainable Development (IGDD) has published a?Mission report on pollution by microplastics of textile origin. More to read: https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/293307-rapport-la-pollution-par-les-micro-plastiques-dorigine-textile

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EU & Other countries

?Crafting a Scientific Framework to Mitigate Microplastic Impact on Ecosystems AND HOW Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) should evolve to include a broader environmental perspective. In particular, the issue of microplastic production should be clearly integrated into EPR frameworks. By doing so, manufacturers would not only be motivated to design products with a focus on recyclability and sustainability but also to actively minimize the generation of MPs throughout the product life cycle. This adaptation would align EPR with existing environmental concerns, particularly the adverse effects of MPs, and provide robust motivation for producers to contribute to the reduction of MPs in the environment. More to read: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8929/3/1/10?s=09

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?Single-stream dry recycling collections should be avoided, according to a new study from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (ECJRC). The research examined 65 recycling management approaches across the EU. It analyzed both environmental and economic implications of each method through life cycle assessment and costing, encompassing the entire recycling process from initial collection to ultimate disposal or recovery. According to the study, single stream collections should be avoided due to the “detrimental” environmental and economic costs. It found that even when a single-stream collection system was accompanied by a deposit refund scheme (DRS) for selected material fractions such as glass bottles, metal cans and PET bottle, it still had the worst performance. The body also highlighted in the study that single-stream collection of dry recyclables achieves the worst economic performance due to the reduction of secondary material recovery relative to systems with a higher degree of separation (or less commingling). It therefore concluded that single- stream commingling is “not complaint” with the EU Waste Framework Directive. Recommendations: The study recommends that three or four stream collections should therefore be implemented. However selected dual stream systems where glass, metal and plastics are commingled, and paper and cardboard are collected in a separate stream or commingled with beverage cartons are also acceptable. It also highlighted that there is insufficient evidence to favor four-stream systems over three-stream or dual-stream systems when paper and cardboard are segregated from other light dry recyclables. The JRC suggested that some level of commingling can be deemed acceptable and even advisable to potentially reap benefits such as cost reduction, space optimization and convenience. More to read: https://fead.be/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/JRC-SWC-2023-Commingling-Final-Report-final-draft.pdf

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·The microfiber problem from the textile industry: Activists, researchers and analysts urge caution about allowing the industry to rely on polyester because it sheds microfibers into the rivers and oceans when being worn or washed. Recycled polyester merely delays the inevitable, they say. Only 1 percent of clothing is recycled. Most garments end up in landfills or incinerators, polluting the air, soil and water. As a result, more than 14 million metric tons of microplastics — much of it from apparel — are sitting on the ocean floor. More to read: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/microplastics-from-textiles-towards-a

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·the European Parliament and the Council have enshrined the end of the negotiation and the beginning of the formal adoption of the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and made the Commission’s proposals on recycling targets even more ambitious. According to European supplier for waste to energy technology (ESWET), these targets are necessary to combine the European Union’s sustainability and the security of supply objectives;?The EU Institutions also reaffirmed the necessity to progressively take into account waste to determine recycling objectives.?Turning waste into resources, as pointed out by the Council Representative will be one of the foundations of Europe’s strategic autonomy. The final text includes some improvements with respect to the list of strategic and critical raw materials as well.?ESWET welcomes the inclusion of copper in the list of strategic raw materials, as already foreseen in the Commission’s proposal. Indeed Copper is one of those elements that are abundant in incineration bottom ash. It’s estimated that it can be recycled from incineration bottom ash (IBA) approximately 90% of copper, which can be then recovered and reused to make more sustainable products. ESWET is very pleased with the inclusion of aluminium in the list of strategic raw materials.?As stated in the ESWET report Recovering the non-recyclable – From Waste-to-Energy to Integrated Resource-Recovery Facility, from the 2 to 5 wt% of non-ferrous metals, around 2/3 is aluminium (Al). More to read: https://eswet.eu/critical-raw-materials-act-the-eu-institutions-close-the-negotiations-and-confirm-ambitious-recycling-targets/

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?Indian 2022 battery waste management rules are amended in case of non-compliance with these rules: These changes aim to streamline the management of battery waste and ensure better compliance with environmental responsibilities. The Indian EPR authority (Central Pollution Control Board-CPCB) will determine the highest and lowest prices for EPR certificates (authorization). These prices will range from 100% to 30% of the Environmental Compensation that obligated companies must pay for not fulfilling their EPR obligations. CPCB will set the exchange price of EPR certificates between registered entities through a designated portal. This price will fall within the range of the highest and lowest prices fixed by the CPCB. Companies can carry forward up to 60% of the remaining quantity of batteries placed in the market during a compliance cycle to the next cycle. More to read: https://vincular.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Battery-Waste-Amendment-2.pdf

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?Plastic recycling has been promoted as a solution to the plastic waste crisis for decades. But how effective is it really? A new report by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) titled “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public for decades and caused the plastic waste crisis. The report draws on newly unearthed industry documents, as well as existing research, to expose the extent of this deception. Some of the key findings include: (i) Plastic recycling rates are extremely low. Only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled, and only 2% of plastic packaging is effectively recycled. (ii) Plastic recycling is costly and inefficient. Recycling plastic requires sorting, cleaning, and processing, which consumes more energy and resources than producing new plastic. Moreover, plastic degrades each time it is reused, limiting its recyclability. (iii) ?Plastic recycling does not reduce plastic production or consumption and (iv) Plastic recycling is not a solution to the plastic waste crisis. Plastic waste is a global threat to the environment and human health, as it contaminates the air, water, soil, and food chain. Plastic waste also contributes to climate change, as it releases greenhouse gases when it degrades or burns. More to read: https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Plastic-Recycling-2024.pdf

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?Alliance to End Plastic Waste and BCG launch?guide for plastic circularity. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste collaborates with BCG to launch?'Solution Model'? playbook?to address plastic waste leakage into the environment and to encourage the transition into a circular economy. The Solution Model playbooks document the challenges each solution presents, how they are addressed, the lessons learnt, and the enabling conditions necessary for success. Alliance aims to inform, inspire and collaborate with a network of partners to further develop and scale these Solution Models to ultimately reduce?unmanaged waste, capture?value from waste, and mitigate?climate impact. More to read: https://interplasinsights.com/plastics-environment-news/latest-circular-economy-plastics-recycling-news/alliance-to-end-plastic-waste-and-bcg-release%C2%A0guide-to-impro/?s=09

?Malaysia congress to penalize plastic polluters and require manufacturers’ of single-use plastic to share the cost of the impact of their products (through the Extended Producer Responsibility clause). There are also local governments banning the use of single-use plastics by wet and dry market merchants. These are just among the small steps to control plastic pollution on the supply side. More to read: https://www.philstar.com/business/2024/03/17/2341081/solutions-abound-tackling-plastic-waste?s=09

?Chemicals in the Plastics Treaty: Perspectives on Protecting Human Health and why it is crucial to regulate chemicals to ensure that the plastics treaty will ensure the protection of human health and in particular with endocrine disruptive chemicals. The IPEN briefing?Troubling Toxics?discusses approaches in the Plastics Treaty to establish criteria for a negative list of toxic chemicals associated with the production, use, and disposal of plastics.?More to read: https://ipen.org/sites/default/files/documents/troubling_toxics_brief_web.pdf

?there is a call from civil society, experts, and activists to ensure the future Treaty applies a human rights approach.?Webinar Summary: A Human Rights Approach to a Plastics Treaty. Crucially, in July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) endorsed the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This recognition could be crucial in advancing a rights-based approach in environmental protection. However, the scope of human rights relevant to the Plastics Treaty goes beyond the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. More to read: https://ipen.org/articles/webinar-summary-human-rights-approach-plastics-treaty

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·Plastic-to-paper shift could increase environmental footprint. A new report?warns that consumer demand to replace plastic packaging with paper is not a silver bullet in the pursuit of sustainability – citing higher energy consumption, increased carbon emissions, and the addition of extra materials that could prevent recyclability or biodegradability as contributing factors. More to read: https://packagingeurope.com/news/plastic-to-paper-shift-could-increase-environmental-footprint-says-rabobank/10939.article?s=09

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·Improving waste and resource management (WaRM) around the world can halve the weight of plastics entering the oceans, significantly mitigate global heating and contribute directly to 12 of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Learning from the past to plan for the future: An historical review of the evolution of waste and resource management 1970–2020 and reflections on priorities 2020–2030 – The perspective of an involved witness. The Global North rediscovered recycling, using policy measures to promote segregation at source; this relied on new markets in emerging economies, which had largely disappeared by 2020. The Global South is making progress on bringing wastes under control, but around 2.7?billion people lack access to waste collection, while 40% of collected MSW is open dumped or burned – a continuing global waste emergency. So, much remains to be done to move further towards a circular economy. Three policy priorities are critical for all countries: access to sustainable financing, rethinking sustainable recycling and worldwide extended producer responsibility with teeth. More to read: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/0734242X231178025

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