How’s this for an arresting statistic?
The World Bank says eight billion people on earth produce two billion tons of municipal waste every year and only 19% is recycled.
Try to visualise this world’s household waste.
The density of municipal solid waste is about 500 kg per cubic metre.
If the world’s annual municipal waste were laid out one metre high, it would cover 4 000 km2.
Durban is about 2 292 km2, so if the garbage were spread across the city, it would be deeper — the mound would stand 1.75 metres high, about 10 cm taller than the average South African man.
The point of this ghastly image (which only relates to municipal waste) is to drive home the importance of the circular economy.
What’s that?
A circular economy attempts to eliminate waste, keep things local and regenerate nature.
The SA economy is 6% circular, lower than the global average of 7.2%.
We know this thanks to Circular South Africa (CSA), a circular economy platform for South Africa whose current custodian is the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN), where Katharina Gihring is Strategic Programme & Operations Lead.
ACEN was founded in 2016 by experts who wanted Africa to be represented in global talks around a green transition, especially the circular economy, to unlock jobs. CSA amplifi es circular initiatives, finds the right partners and tries to make the concept of circularity accessible in practical ways—a challenging task because of the different approaches and language used to address sustainability, the green economy, and recycling. It’s as messy as the average household trash bin emptied on the pavement.
The circular economy is often viewed as recycling. But, it goes far beyond waste management, and it requires a rethink of our current linear economy. With that comes different challenges. High income households need to decrease their consumption, while low-income households need to gain access to products and services.
The challenge is for mindful companies to connect to a wider ecosystem that allows them to create a circular economy. Is it climate change mitigation, waste minimisation, or product design to reduce our (dirty) footprint on the world?
Katharina says it is all this and more. There are lessons to be learned everywhere. For example, Saris for Change is a South African company that makes kaftans, kimonos, drawstring pants, and jackets from 100% recycled saris.
Katharina says some oil companies get a bad rep for pollution, but have great circular systems to reduce feedstock, motivated by economic savings.
“We need to map circular economy interventions in the country to understand the ecosystems, see who is doing what, and see where synergies exist. We have created a hub for potential collaborating partners to find one another. Knowledge sharing is vital in thetransition to a circular economy.”
