Council recently approved Cape Town’s first Waste Strategy. This proactive game plan outlines the City’s approach over the next 10 years to manage waste more effectively and sustainably, in collaboration with all Cape Town stakeholders, to help create a cleaner Cape Town for all.
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Cape Town’s waste in numbers · The City currently manages about 2,1 million tonnes of waste annually, with about 31,53% of this waste currently diverted from landfill. · Every day, Cape Town generates about enough waste to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. · In 2023/24, illegal dumping totalled about 15 000 tonnes of waste collected per month. · Cape Town’s population is projected to expand to 5,8 million by 2040, which will increase pressure on waste management systems. |
The vision for Cape Town is to deliver a clean city for all, where residents and businesses have access to quality, sustainable, and affordable waste services.
To activate this vision, the City of Cape Town has collated its first Waste Strategy to navigate the significant challenges it faces in managing waste due to rapid urbanisation, population growth, increasing consumption patterns, and pervasive illegal dumping/littering.
The Waste Strategy is built on three commitment pillars:
1. Optimising existing services – improving efficiencies within existing services
2. Minimising waste to landfill – making waste reduction easy and part of the culture of Cape Town
3. Maximising the basket of service offerings – expanding services through partnerships and tailoring
The Waste Strategy prioritises partnerships with key stakeholders in the waste industry including residents to address illegal dumping and reduce waste that ends up in landfill.
It also highlights key actions to respond to waste challenges such as developing a plan for an additional landfill site, collaborating innovatively with waste generators and Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO’s) to minimise waste, and extending waste services to indigent backyard tenants on private property.
Guided by the Waste Strategy, the City is making major investments in enhanced waste management services over the next three years including:
· R1,1 billion over three years to purchase refuse removal vehicles and plant to ensure a reliable service, including refuse trucks, crane trucks, refuse collectors, tipper trucks, street sweepers, flatbed trucks, landfill compactors, bulldozers front-end loaders, water tankers, and more;
· R88 million annually for the new Main Arterial and CBD Cleaning initiative for cleaner highways and business districts;
· R163 million for Waste-to-Energy capital infrastructure initiatives;
· Upgrades to depots, waste drop-off facilities, and Refuse Transfer Stations.
‘It’s non-negotiable for all of us to improve our relationship with waste, and to get better at managing and reducing our waste, be it at home, as a business or as a government entity.
‘Waste is everyone’s business. It’s part of our daily lives as we buy and use products, or experience the effects of illegal dumping. The future of Cape Town’s waste is in all of our hands. Sustainably managing waste in Cape Town is a shared responsibility, and residents, businesses and civil society are essential partners in realising the vision of a clean city for all.
‘We thank residents and businesses for their inputs to the Waste Strategy. Now that it has been approved, it’s time for all of us to bolster our efforts and teamwork to put this game plan into action. Let’s work together to create a cleaner, healthier environment for all residents and ensure that waste management services are effective, accessible, affordable, and sustainable.
‘Collaboration between the City, residents, and the private sector is the most important factor to increase waste diversion and create a sustainable urban environment for all Cape Town residents,’ said Alderman Grant Twigg, Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management.
