Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa announced that South Africa will soon introduce a Paper and Packaging Industry Plan (PPIP) that includes a household level “separation-at-source” mandate. Engineering News reports that this could significantly change the country’s current waste management system.

“This will not only minimise the amount of waste going to landfills, but will also unlock the economic potential of this waste stream,” Molewa noted at the official launch of the Ekurhuleni Clean City initiative, in Gauteng.  

This new plan will evidently be modelled on the Waste Tyre Management Plan that has seen 31% less tyre waste making it into landfills. The waste tyre scheme created around 3,000 jobs and saw 200 small, medium-sized and microenterprises and cooperatives established according to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA.)

The PPIP will be aligned to the National Waste Management Plan that promotes waste minimization with a reuse, recycle and recover blueprint. It aims to divert 77% of recyclable waste from landfills by 2019.

“The implementation of an industry plan for the paper and packaging waste stream will put value to this waste stream and facilitate the establishment and operation of businesses within this sector. In doing so, we hope we will, in future, not see all this waste in our streets, as it will move from being waste to being a resource,” said Molewa.