The state of innovation in the South African waste sector

Abstract

The results of the first South African Waste Sector Survey shows that landfilling remains the main technology option for the management of waste in South African, with 90% of all waste generated, disposed of to landfill. However, the results show a surprisingly high level of waste innovation activity, with the private sector showing greater innovation activity than the public sector. An estimated 51.9% of private enterprises compared to 41.2% of municipalities indicated they had introduced new product innovations during the past five years, while 56.3% of private enterprises compared to only 35.3% of municipalities indicated they had introduced new process innovations. The private waste sector showed a greater tendency to introduce new technological innovations to the South Africa waste market, compared to municipalities who typically only introduced technological innovations to their own operations, with over 50% of private sector respondents indicating that they had introduced product or process innovations that were new to the South African waste market. The private waste sector also showed a greater tendency than municipalities to introduce technological innovations from overseas, with 26.1% of private enterprises indicating that they had sourced their product innovations mainly from abroad, and 34.7% their process innovations. It is hoped that this innovation activity displayed by the waste sector will translate into an increased diversion of waste away from landfilling towards recycling and recovery. However, given the current constraints facing the South African waste sector, creating an enabling environment for waste innovation is imperative to changing the sectors dependency on landfilling.