Household waste recycling behaviour in South Africa - has there been progress in the last 5 years?

Abstract

In 2010, the CSIR conducted the first national survey on household waste recycling behaviour in South Africa. To assess whether household recycling behaviour has improved over time, the CSIR conducted a second survey in 2015, five years after the first national survey. Comparing the results from the 2010 and 2015 surveys shows that the percentage of dedicated recycling households in large urban areas has almost doubled over the past five years, but remains very low at 7.2%. Households in smaller towns and rural areas lag even further behind in terms of dedicated recycling households, at only 2.6%. Of the four paper and packaging recyclables surveyed (plastic, paper, glass, metal), plastic showed the largest increase in percentage of households that recycle this material, followed by glass and metal, with paper showing the smallest growth in the number of recycling households. The data also suggest that it is easier for recycling households to recycle more (quantity and diversity of recyclables), than for non-recycling households to start recycling. The challenge is therefore to find the triggers that will shift consumers “willingness to recycle” into actual “recycling behaviour” and to then put measures and services in place to support ongoing recycling behaviour.