Cooperatives in waste and recycling: A recipe for failed waste hierarchy implementation?

Abstract

In post-apartheid South Africa, cooperatives appear to be the government’s SMME model for driving job creation. Unfortunately, the mortality rates of cooperatives in all sectors is very high with a reported 12% survival rate of cooperatives in general and an 8.1% survival in the waste sector. This paper provides some preliminary findings from a 2016 CSIR study of waste and recycling cooperatives in KZN. The study is underpinned by the qualitative paradigm comprising interviews with SMMEs (including cooperatives) and stakeholder organisations (in both private and public sector) which support these SMMEs. The study finds that cooperatives (in contrast to other SMME models like Ptys, and close corporations) in the waste and recycling sector are typically slow adapters to technological innovation, and hence are likely to experience challenges in harnessing the opportunities that the fourth industrial revolution presents. The cooperatives are also under pressure because of reduced access to export markets. Overall, cooperatives in the waste recycling sector in KZN are underperforming compared to other forms of SMMEs which are having a positive impact on waste and recycling, and indeed on implementing the waste hierarchy.