Corporate accountability for waste management under the spotlight

22 Oct 2024

What responsibility do corporations have in managing the waste they produce – both land and e-waste – and are they managing it in a way that is unharmful to the environment and human health?

Consumers are being told left, right and centre to reduce, reuse and recycle as South Africa, like other countries, grapples with increased volumes of waste generated by its growing population.

But what responsibility do corporations have in managing the waste they produce – both land and e-waste – and are they coming to the party to manage this in a way that is unharmful to the environment and human health?

This was the topic of discussion in a Daily Maverick webinar on Tuesday where Our Burning Planet journalist Julia Evans engaged with Ashley du Plooy, CEO of the Producer Responsibility Organisation for Electronic Waste (ERA NPC), and Noel Shaw, a sustainable development veteran, on the importance of waste management for corporations – a crucial aspect of turning business operations green.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SogqwUY9fs

This was the first webinar in Daily Maverick’s sustainability masterclass series. The experts explored practical and innovative strategies that companies could use to reduce, reuse and recycle land and e-waste, helping them minimise their environmental impact.

With the mismanagement of waste driving up not only pollution, but also climate change through greenhouse gases released by decomposing waste at landfills, wildlife harm and human health risks, Shaw said that it was everyone’s responsibility to ensure that private companies were making their businesses more sustainable.

“Companies or corporations are just made up of lots of everybody, so we all have our individual responsibility and we need to honestly look at if we have a problem, what is it? Agree what it is, identify, measure, and then we can manage it,” Shaw said.

Companies had a corporate social responsibility, and Shaw said there were a lot of buzzwords, but addressing the environment and economic and social sustainability was how the world would survive.

In this, companies often face allegations of greenwashing, so how does one differentiate actual greenwashing from real ambition and credible action to increase the sustainability of companies?

Du Plooy said, “I suspect there’s a lot of greenwashing, and I’m not sure how we avoid it, but… we have regulations that say to all producers of electronics that they have to take responsibility for the products at the end of life.”

South Africa is still at the beginning of developing an ecosystem around the management of e-waste with its Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation, in effect from 2021.

Thus, Du Plooy said, the regulation was still fairly young and in his experience, there had been many companies who took or appeared to have a progressive posture on their products and their environmental footprint.

‘Free riders’

“But in reality, when it comes to meeting their obligations, they are nowhere to be seen… I do think that there is greenwashing. I wouldn’t be able to quantify it, but in my experience I know that there are hypocritical corporations who, on the one hand, say they are doing something. The least they can do is have a waste management plan, as they are required by law,” Du Plooy said.

He said corporations needed to comply with the country’s EPR regulations. Those not participating or complying were called the “free riders” but the government had already issued notices to these organisations.

Du Plooy said there were probably between 3,000 and 6,000 producers of electronic products in the South African market and fewer than 10% were obeying the law.

“Government has issued notices to companies that are not cooperating and not complying by joining or forming an EPR scheme… They are meant to recognise it because it’s law in the same way that if you don’t pay your VAT, it is law. It is a new law. It’s three years old, and the government is coming for those companies that are not participating. We’ve seen that already,” he said.

Many companies had impressive Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports, but in reality, Du Plooy said, they achieved very little in managing their resource usage, waste management and other issues.

When it came to disposing of and managing e-waste in companies, Du Plooy said it was a complex waste stream with a wide range of mixed materials, some of which had value, but much didn’t and was toxic to the environment.

Du Plooy said this was why it was so important for companies and individuals to try to recycle e-waste.

Hoarding

Last year, ERA ran an intensive information campaign on e-waste and over two days, tested the hypothesis that people were hoarding electronic waste.

“Within two days, we had over 135,000 people get off their backsides and collect their washing machines and their phones and everything. We collected 164 tons of electronic waste in just over two days,” he said.

Du Plooy said electronic waste had valuable components, which could be extracted through proper recycling. Some of that e-waste could also be repaired and reused.

“Imagine, if by 2040 each person is going to have an average of 25 connected devices. That is what, 250 billion devices, connected devices. So we’re looking at mountains and mountains of electronic waste being generated,” he said.

Some of the materials used can be used in new applications, but Du Plooy said the key was to ensure that the harmful components didn’t affect public health and the environment.

Du Plooy and Shaw urged consumers to make conscious decisions and decide whether they wanted to buy from a company that flagrantly disregarded these regulations and obligations or whether they wanted to support a company that was participating in growing a circular economy through EPR.

“The information is there… There’s a lot of disinformation and misinformation but if you want the correct information, it’s available…It’s your choice how you treat the environment and how you treat the future. Everybody is responsible for their actions,” Shaw concluded.

Shaw, du Plooy and Evans also discussed how proper waste management not only benefited the planet but would also enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and align businesses with global sustainability goals.

Evans said that from a company’s perspective, they needed to meet these obligations, but they also needed to turn a profit and pay salaries.

But, she said, “If you shift the whole system or the whole business model, it’s not just environmentally sustainable. It can be economically sustainable, and it doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to lose money.” DM

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‘Free riders’