Recycle rather than expand or build more landfills.
South Africa is drowning in its own detritus. The population surged by almost 10% from 2011 to 2017, driving consumption — and waste — to new heights, but waste disposal mechanisms are not keeping up.
In 2017 alone, we generated about 107 million tonnes of waste, half of which was household waste and most of which ended up in landfills. And these figures are expected to triple by 2050.
Part of the problem is South Africans are a throw-away people and don’t recycle much. A 2020 government report noted that just 11% of household refuse is recycled, and the rest of our rubbish ends up in landfills. But these are filling up fast.
A number of the country’s landfills, including Johannesburg’s Goudkoppies, Marie Louis, and Genesis sites, are expected to reach their fill in about two years, says Bukelwa Njingolo, managing director of the City of Johannesburg’s waste-management company, Pikitup. Robinson Deep, operational since 1933, has less than a year left before it reaches capacity in March 2026.
These overflowing landfills risk harming human health, especially in adjacent communities such as Bhongweni in the Eastern Cape and Eldorado Park in Gauteng. They also risk contaminating water supplies by 2030 — a chilling counterpoint to the United Nation’s sustainable development goal of clean water and sanitation for all by that same year.
These stark numbers have a serious message for us — we need to change our attitude to waste and consumption and we need to change it fast. But how?
The onus, while shared with the government and municipalities that must invest in infrastructure and public awareness, ultimately rests on individual action.
Governments can and must design waste-management practices that effectively curb excessive waste generation, and set recycling targets that are understandable and realistic, and municipalities must improve recycling infrastructure. But without active individual, household and company participation, all efforts are doomed to fail.
Research consistently points to a sense of ownership at an individual level as the bedrock of recycling habits. As long as the connection between our overflowing bins and the environmental crisis remains abstract, progress will be glacial.
The theory of planned behaviour, a psychological model that explains how people’s beliefs, attitudes and perceived control influence their behaviour, suggests a path forward — tapping into our ingrained beliefs and attitudes, fosters a society in which responsible waste management isn’t a chore but a social norm.
This is no easy shift to make, but a case study on recycling in Soweto published by Henley Business School provides some insight into how this can be achieved.
Drawing on a 2019 study involving about 500 000 households in Soweto — a sprawling metropolis housing over a quarter of the City of Johannesburg’s population — the study exposed a glaring disconnect; a remarkable 74% of residents expressed willingness to recycle, but their good intentions rarely translated into action.
Insufficient information about the waste disposal initiatives of the city, incomplete guidance and low levels of education were cited as key barriers.
Even financial incentives failed to ignite widespread participation, despite the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the area.
This underscores the need for a holistic approach — accessible infrastructure, reliable services and, above all, clear and practical education.
The study emphasises that,without proper understanding at an individual level, behavioural shifts simply won’t materialise and the lack of visibility of recycling facilities and initiatives could be a primary cause of lower-than-expected recycling rates.
The case study paints a bleak picture of the problem, but it also highlights that many recycling and waste-management initiatives might be overlooking a potent, untapped resource to unlock higher recycling rates: ubuntu.
Participants in the 2019 study themselves suggested that a sense of community responsibility, where neighbours hold each other accountable, could be a powerful catalyst for change, rendering top-down regulation less necessary.
This opens up the possibility for us to reimagine recycling not as a municipal directive but as a collective act of care for one’s community, funding local initiatives, creating jobs and even bolstering neighbourhood security.
Municipalities can seize this insight. With South Africa’s landfill waste diversion targets aiming to decrease the amounts of waste generated annually to achieve zero waste to landfills by 2050, these insights could prove invaluable.
An empathetic understanding of the daily struggles faced by households in these difficult economic times, coupled with the provision of resources and services that genuinely ease their burden, could be the key to unlocking widespread participation.
By consciously appealing to our shared humanity, to that fundamental South African principle of ubuntu, we can transform our relationship with waste, ensuring cleaner, healthier communities and a more sustainable future for all.
The question isn’t whether our zero-landfill dream is achievable but whether we, as a society, possess the collective will to fundamentally alter our relationship with waste. The overflowing landfills are a symptom; the cure could lie in ubuntu, our collective spirit.
Thando Mazibuko is the author of the case study Recycling in Soweto: A Mounting Problem (2024), which was written in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration at Henley Business School Africa.