WASTE MANAGEMENT OR WASTE OF TIME?
DRAFT WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY 2026
The draft National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2026, published in December 2025, represents a strategic pivot for South Africa as it attempts to address a significant regression in waste diversion performance over the last five years.
This strategy seeks to transition the country toward a Circular Economy (CE) while addressing systemic failures in municipal service delivery.
The public and affected stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments on the Draft Strategy 2026.
Strategic Pillars of NWMS 2026
The strategy is built upon four primary pillars designed to provide a comprehensive response to the waste crisis:
Pillar 1: Circular Economy and Waste Minimisation: Focuses on shifting away from the “take-make-dispose” model toward resource recovery and waste reduction.
Pillar 2: Effective and Sustainable Waste Services: Aims to stabilise municipal waste collection and ensure financial stability in waste management services.
Pillar 3: Capacity Building and Awareness: Targets the development of a culture of zero tolerance for pollution and littering through education.
Pillar 4: Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement: Strengthens the regulatory oversight to ensure adherence to the Waste Act and other environmental standards.
Key Performance Regression
A critical takeaway from the draft is the acknowledgement of a net 15 million tonne increase in waste generation alongside a 25% decrease in the waste diversion rate compared to 2018 levels.
This suggests that while the NWMS 2020 established a necessary framework, it struggled to achieve practical “game-changing” innovation in the sector.
The status quo assessment reveals the following:
Waste diversion rates dropped from 35% in 2018 to 10% .
Total waste volumes increased from 107 million tonnes in 2018 to 122 million tonnes.
Expanded Scope of Priority Waste Streams
The 2026 draft significantly expands the list of prioritised waste streams to include materials that have historically been difficult to manage. These include:
Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHPs) and Clothing and Textiles.
Organic and Food waste, which are major contributors to landfill gas.
Coal ash and Construction/Demolition waste, addressing industrial and urban development footprints.
Emphasis on the Informal Sector
Unlike previous iterations that focused primarily on formal municipal services, the 2026 strategy explicitly recognizes the informal sector led by waste picker organisations as key actors in the Circular Economy.
This acknowledges that a “just transition” is required to integrate these individuals into the formal value chain.
Implementation Challenges
The strategy highlights a major service delivery gap: while 12.7 million tonnes of municipal waste are collected annually, an estimated 3.67 million tonnes remain uncollected.
The NWMS 2026 attempts to address this through Pillar 2, but its success will depend on the financial stability of municipalities, a recurring challenge in the South African context.
We’re Losing the War on Trash
The NWMS 2020 wasn't just "slow", it presided over a massive 25% collapse in effectiveness while waste volumes increased by 15 million tonnes.
The 2026 strategy adds several highly complex new waste streams to its priority list, which may be a case of "running before we can walk."
The reality is that while the DFFE is planning for complex automobile and coal ash management, municipalities are failing at the basics: 3.67 million tonnes of municipal waste still go completely uncollected every year.
The 2026 strategy aims for a culture of “zero tolerance” for illegal dumping and litter and acknowledges that a “dramatic improvement in the status quo” is required, but it relies on municipalities that are currently struggling with financial (and political) stability.
It could be argued that the "Circular Economy" is being used as a high-minded distraction from the systemic breakdown of traditional waste management infrastructure.
Beacon of Hope or Pie in the Sky ?
Whether the Draft National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2026 is a beacon of hope or “pie in the sky” depends on whether you focus on its ambitious theoretical framework or the sobering data it reveals about the last five years of failure.
The strategy itself admits that South Africa is currently moving in the wrong direction, which serves as both a justification for its “game-changing” goals and a warning of the systemic hurdles ahead.
The NWMS 2026 offers hope because it identifies exactly where the previous strategy failed.
However, it leans toward “pie in the sky” because it proposes adding more complexity (new waste streams) to a system that is currently failing at the basics (collection and diversion).
Without a radical shift in how municipalities are funded and held accountable (Pillar 4), the 2026 strategy risks becoming another well-written document that watches waste volumes grow while diversion rates continue to fall.
Public comments on the DRAFT WASTE STRATEGY are due by Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 12h00.
Download the draft National Waste Management Strategy
