Stakeholder perspectives of the key challenges and opportunities in implementing organic waste diversion in the Western Cape

Abstract

Organic waste diversion from landfill presents challenges in both developed and developing countries, where it accounts for 32% and 50% of the total waste stream respectively. From international research these challenges included a lack of clear government policies, deficiencies in planning, poor communication and awareness campaigns, and shortages of funds to provide the required infrastructure, logistics, and processing capacity to manage organic waste. In addition, three key factors were identified as being the biggest barriers to implementing organic waste diversion; the fact that organic waste has no monetary value, fees are charged to manage the waste, and the public’s general negative attitude towards organic waste management. In contrast, diverting organic waste from landfill presents several opportunities including rescuing edible food for human consumption, using food waste as animal feed, extending the lifespan of landfills, preventing greenhouse gas production, producing compost for agriculture, extracting energy through anaerobic digestion, and creating jobs and enterprises within the circular economy. In South Africa, both the national government and the Western Cape Provincial Government have prioritised diverting organic waste from landfills in order to improve waste management and grow the circular economy in the country. The National Waste Management Strategy 2020 emphasises the need to source separate waste so that the value can be extracted. In addition to national strategies, the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) has set targets of 50% diversion of organic waste from landfill by 2022 and 100% by 2027. In order for them to achieve the targets set, municipal solid waste managers (SWM) are required by government to implement programmes to extract organic waste streams from municipal solid waste and find alternative means of processing it. As of the end of 2022 none of the municipalities in the Western Cape had achieved the target of 50% diversion from landfill. The objectives of this research was therefore to understand the key challenges that stakeholders face when implementing organic waste diversion and identify opportunities that diverting this waste could present. A qualitative approach was adopted for the research and interviews were conducted with solid waste managers from nine Western Cape local municipalities to identify what they perceive to be both the challenges and the opportunities of diverting organic waste. Two officials from the DEA&DP: Waste Directorate were also interviewed to understand their perspectives of the efforts of municipalities to divert organic waste from landfill. A questionnaire with both closed-ended, ranking and open questions was used to extract views. Economic challenges followed by social challenges were found to be the most important. Limited finances restricted the ability of municipalities to provide additional resources to separate, collect and process organic waste. Convincing waste generators to correctly sort waste in an acceptable form for processing was regarded as the biggest social challenge. Source separating food waste appeared to be a very low priority for municipal solid waste managers with a focus on separating garden waste for chipping and composting. With respect to the challenges faced with separating organic waste from mixed solid waste there were concerns that separating using mechanical biological treatment (MBT) would yield contaminated compost and be prohibitively expensive. The cost of converting existing compactor waste truck fleets to organic waste transport vehicles was regarded as a significant challenge when implementing organic waste diversion programmes. Processing of organic waste was limited in most municipalities to the chipping of garden waste, the collection of food waste from restaurants and hotels by pig farmers, and the composting of abattoir waste at abattoirs. The accumulation of large stockpiles of chipped garden waste presented a challenge as municipalities had failed to develop markets or off takers for the chippings. The preserving of landfill airspace was regarded as the most important opportunity that diverting organic waste created. This was due to the severe shortage of municipal landfill airspace available and the associated high costs of transporting waste to regional landfills. Creating jobs and enterprise development was also considered a valuable opportunity although there was uncertainty as to how this could be achieved practically. In addition, reducing waste transport costs through decentralising the chipping of garden waste and composting, was regarded as an important benefit of diverting organic waste. Preventing the generation of greenhouse gases, protecting ground water from contamination, and recovering nutrients for agriculture and animal feed were also regarded as opportunities by stakeholders who participated in the research. None of the participants mentioned food recovery or anaerobic digestion as potential opportunities that diverting organic waste could offer.