The second National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) (DEA, 2011: 27) commits government to “provide guidance to municipalities and industry on measures to improve the working conditions of waste-pickers”. Government has undertaken a number of activities to fulfil this mandate.
In 2012, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, which was then known as the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), held a workshop in East London at which municipalities, industry and waste pickers acknowledged waste pickers’ contributions to the recycling economy, and affirmed that waste pickers must be included in the formal system (DEA, 2012).
In 2015, DEA hosted a national workshop for waste pickers, industry, research organisations and government to discuss how this could be done. The workshop focused on the legal framework, the institutional framework and operational issues related to the formal inclusion of waste pickers (DEA, 2015). The workshop also discussed the findings of a research project on waste pickers commissioned by DEA titled Determination of the extent and role of waste-picking in South Africa (DEA, 2016b).
Work then shifted to focus on how such guidance can be provided. In April 2016, the South African Cities Network (SACN) held a workshop that brought the metros and waste pickers together to discuss their experiences of waste picker integration (SACN, 2016).
Subsequently, in November 2016, DEA hosted a workshop where Latin American experts shared their extensive experience on waste picker integration with South African stakeholders, including representatives from government, industry, waste picker organisations and NGOs (DEA, 2016a). That workshop was the first concrete step towards developing this Guideline.
Inspired by the Brazilian experience (Dias, 2011a; Gutberlet, 2008), this Guideline on Waste Picker Integration was developed through a participatory stakeholder process that drew on evidence from academic research, as well as international experiences and stakeholders’ expertise. The knowledge, insights and needs of waste pickers were centred in the process. Between June 2017 and April 2019, government convened a Waste Picker Integration National Stakeholder Working Group (SWG) that included representatives from waste picker organisations, industry associations, municipalities, national government departments and NGOs.
This Guideline is the outcome of six participatory SWG workshops facilitated by Dr Melanie Samson (University of the Witwatersrand), who wrote the guideline. On April 9, 2019, DEA hosted a one day Waste Picker Integration Workshop to present the draft Guideline and receive feedback from a wider group of stakeholders. The Guideline was informed by extensive research conducted by a team at the University of the Witwatersrand led by Dr. Samson under the Department of Science and Technology’s research grant project Lessons from waste picker integration initiatives. The project received additional funding from DEA. Research conducted by other universities and science councils in South Africa over the past decade also played an important role in developing the Guideline. One of the stakeholder workshops took the form of a research conference where researchers shared their findings related to waste pickers with SWG members The Guideline drew inspiration from several similar guidelines produced for Latin America, India and the Balkans (Chikarmane, 2012; Chintan, 2014; IADB, 2013; Scheinberg et al., 2018) and benefited greatly from inputs by leading global and national experts.
Source: Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and Department of Science and Innovation (2020). Waste picker integration guideline for South Africa: Building the Recycling Economy and Improving Livelihoods through Integration of the Informal Sector. DEFF and DST: Pretoria.
Chemicals are essential for the well-being, high living standards and comfort of modern society. They are used in many sectors, including health, energy, mobility and housing. However, most chemicals have hazardous properties which can harm the environment and human health.
The EU already has sophisticated chemicals laws in place, but global chemicals production is expected to double by 2030. The already widespread use of chemicals will also increase, including in consumer products. The European Commission published a chemicals strategy for sustainability on 14 October 2020. It is part of the EU’s zero pollution ambition, which is a key commitment of the European Green Deal.
The EU already has one of the most comprehensive and protective regulatory frameworks for chemicals, supported by the most advanced knowledge base globally. This regulatory framework is increasingly becoming a model for safety standards worldwide. The EU has been undeniably successful in creating an efficiently functioning internal market for chemicals, in reducing the risks to humans and the environment posed by certain hazardous chemicals, such as carcinogens and heavy metals, and in providing a predictable legislative framework for companies to operate in.
Nevertheless, in order to develop and deploy the sustainable chemicals that enable the green and digital transitions and to protect environment and human health, in particular that of vulnerable groups, innovation for the green transition of the chemical industry and its value chains must be stepped up and the existing EU chemicals policy must evolve and respond more rapidly and effectively to the challenges posed by hazardous chemicals. This includes ensuring that all chemicals are used more safely and sustainably, promoting that chemicals having a chronic effect for human health and the environment - substances of concern – are minimised and substituted as far as possible, and phasing out the most harmful ones for non-essential societal use, in particular in consumer products.
A more coherent, predictable and stronger regulatory framework, combined with nonregulatory incentives, will drive the necessary innovation, deliver increased protection, while enhancing the competitiveness of the European chemical industry and its value chains. To ensure a level playing field between EU and non-EU players, the EU must ensure full enforcement of its rules on chemicals both internally and at its borders, and promote them as a gold standard worldwide, in line with our international commitments.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only added to the urgency to protect human and planetary health but it has also made us aware that manufacturing and supply chains have become increasingly complex and globalised for some critical chemicals, such as those to produce pharmaceuticals. The EU must strengthen its open strategic autonomy with resilient value chains and diversify sustainable sourcing for those chemicals that have essential uses for our health and for achieving a climate-neutral and circular economy.
This strategy highlights the areas where the Commission wants to make greater progress, in close concertation with stakeholders to fine-tune these objectives as part of rigorous impact assessment processes building on the ample evidence already gathered on the performance of existing legislation. The Commission will establish a high-level roundtable with representatives from industry including SMEs, science and the civil society to realise the strategy’s objectives in dialogue with the stakeholders concerned. Discussions of the roundtable are envisaged to focus in particular on how to make the chemicals legislation work more efficiently and effectively and how to boost the development and uptake of innovative safe and sustainable chemicals across sectors.
Source: European Commission (2020). COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a Toxic-Free Environment.
During the UN Ocean Conference in New York (5-9 June) the German Government made the following commitment related to marine litter: 'Implementation of Ten-point Plan of Action for Marine Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries of the German Development Co-operation in which one field of action is the reduction of land-based marine littering.'
The Marine Strategy of Germany under the MSFD has the following national overarching environmental target for marine litter: “Seas without pressures from litter”. The Programme of Measures (PoM) also further establishes 3 operational environmental targets for the German parts of both the Baltic and the North Sea:
Within the national Programme of Measures a number of measures have been defined specifically addressing marine litter. A National Round Table on Marine Litter was established in 2016 in order to facilitate the implementation of the MSFD at the national level, as well as the implementation of the mentioned action plans. The round table involves stakeholders from industry, academia, NGOs, as well as administration from municipalities, state and federal governments.
Source: Arroyo Schnell, A., Klein N., Gómez Girón, E., Sousa, J., 2017. National marine plastic litter policies in EU Member States: an overview. Brussels, Belgium: IUCN viii+64 pp.
