Caught between the global economy and local bureaucracy: the barriers to good waste management practice in South Africa

Concepts of circular economy for sustainable management of electronic wastes: challenges and management options

The electronic and electrical industrial sector is exponentially growing throughout the globe, and sometimes, these wastes are being disposed of and discarded with a faster rate in comparison to the past era due to technology advancements. As the application of electronic devices is increasing due to the digitalization of the world (IT sector, medical, domestic, etc.), a heap of discarded e-waste is also being generated. Per-capita e-waste generation is very high in developed countries as compared to developing countries. Expansion of the global population and advancement of technologies are mainly responsible to increase the e-waste volume in our surroundings. E-waste is responsible for environmental threats as it may contain dangerous and toxic substances like metals which may have harmful effects on the biodiversity and environment. Furthermore, the life span and types of e-waste determine their harmful effects on nature, and unscientific practices of their disposal may elevate the level of threats as observed in most developing countries like India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and China. In the present review paper, many possible approaches have been discussed for effective e-waste management, such as recycling, recovery of precious metals, adopting the concepts of circular economy, formulating relevant policies, and use of advance computational techniques. On the other hand, it may also provide potential secondary resources valuable/critical materials whose primary sources are at significant supply risk. Furthermore, the use of machine learning approaches can also be useful in the monitoring and treatment/processing of e-wastes. HIGHLIGHTS: In 2019, ~ 53.6 million tons of e-wastes generated worldwide. Discarded e-wastes may be hazardous in nature due to presence of heavy metal compositions. Precious metals like gold, silver, and copper can also be procured from e-wastes. Advance tools like artificial intelligence/machine learning can be useful in the management of e-wastes.

Barriers to Household Waste Recycling: Empirical Evidence from South Africa

A small percentage of South Africans regularly recycle most of their recyclables, which was only 4% and 7.2% in 2010 and 2015, respectively. This empirical quantitative study, the first study on this scale in South Africa, aimed to ascertain the reasons why people do not recycle. This paper reports the results from a survey conducted among a representative sample of 2004 respondents in eleven of South Africa’s large urban areas. Each respondent selected three main reasons why people do not recycle from ten possible options as well as the one main reason. The results show that (i) insufficient space, (ii) no time, (iii) dirty and untidiness associated with recycling, (iv) lack of recycling knowledge, and (v) inconvenient recycling facilities are perceived as the main reasons why people do not recycle. Non-recycling households (74% of the respondents) give high priority to time and knowledge. Low recyclers—those that sporadically recycle few items—and young South Africans give high priority to services (inconvenient facilities and no curbside collection). Lack of knowledge is an important factor for people from dense settlements as well as the unemployed looking for work. Improved recycling services such as regular curbside collections have the potential to overcome time and space barriers. Recycling services as well as recycling knowledge will have to improve to encourage the youth, the unemployed, and those living in informal areas to recycle and realize the opportunities locked in the waste sector. The perceptions of respondents from non-recycling households differ from those from recycling households. The larger representation of non-recyclers in developing countries emphasize the importance of understanding local evidence when comparing and implementing results from developed countries. The learning from this study could also assist other developing countries to encourage household participation in recycling initiatives.

The declared barriers of the large developing countries waste management projects: The STAR model

The aim of this study is to investigate and describe the barriers system that precludes the feasibility, or limits the performance of the waste management projects through the analysis of which are the declared barriers at the 432 large waste management projects registered as CDM during the period 2004-2014. The final product is a waste management barriers conceptual model proposal (STAR), supported by literature and corroborated by projects design documents. This paper uses the computer assisted qualitative content analysis (CAQCA) methodology with the qualitative data analysis (QDA) software NVivo®, by 890 fragments, to investigate the motives to support our conclusions. Results suggest the main barriers classification in five types: sociopolitical, technological, regulatory, financial, and human resources constraints. Results also suggest that beyond the waste management industry, projects have disadvantages added related to the same barriers inherent to others renewable energies initiatives. The STAR model sheds some light over the interactivity and dynamics related to the main constraints of the industry, describing the mutual influences and relationships among each one. Future researches are needed to better and comprehensively understand these relationships and ease the development of tools to alleviate or eliminate them.