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Can Recycling Reduce South African Youth Unemployment In The Circular Economy?

Can Recycling Reduce South African Youth Unemployment In The Circular Economy?

When it comes to monetizing recycled tires, South Africa claims to be a world leader.

Approved in 2012, government-funded collection depots and infrastructure have been set up around South Africa to collect waste tires — an estimated 60 million are lying around, more than the country’s population — and deliver them to approved recyclers.

This effort has created more than 2,600 new jobs and 200 small-to-medium-sized enterprises within three years, according to the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa.

The process of collecting, transporting and recycling waste could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and small businesses, tackling one of South Africa’s greatest challenges – joblessness — says Frans Cronjé, CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations.

South Africa can do more to monetize the waste products being dumped in landfills, the IRR said in a press release. This will create jobs, support entrepreneurs and help clean up the environment in “the circular economy”.

Here’s one definition of the circular economy, according to Wrap.org:

A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.

Here’s another definition from CircleEconomy:

A circular economy is one that is waste-free and resilient by design — an economic system that operates within our planetary boundaries. It is a new economic model that is ambitious as well as practical…designing the economy in a way that is restorative of ecosystems, ambitious with its innovation, and impactful for society.

Turning waste to worth is the subject of a new study by the Institute of Race Relations, which has an 80-year history in South Africa. The IRR explores how the circular economy could overcome the unemployment crisis in its report, “Circular Economies – Turning Waste Into Worth.”

The IRR describes itself this way: “A classically liberal think-tank promoting the ideas and policy solutions necessary to drive the investment and economic growth that will free South Africa’s people from unemployment, dependency, and poverty.”

South Africa’s tire industry is one example of the circular economy at work, IRR said.

“The implementation of circular economies will lead to unprecedented opportunities, the creation of reverse logistics networks, new processes and new industries using the recovered resources,” said IRR CEO Frans Cronjé.

Tire manufacturers and importers in South Africa pay a waste management fee of 2.30 rand ($0.17 US) plus value-added tax per kilogram of new tire. About 80 percent of the fees go back into developing and supporting collectors, storage depots, recyclers, and secondary industries that make products from recycled tires, according to the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa.

“On a planet of finite resources, the circular economy is not optional, it is inevitable,” said REDISA CEO Hermann Erdmann in a prepared statement. “In under three years we have developed a circular economy within the tire industry in South Africa and have seen tangible results.”

More than 50 percent of 15-to-25-year-old South Africans are jobless — not in education, employment or training — Cronjé said.  The country’s jobless crisis is worse than many other emerging markets.

Introducing a successful circular-economy approach includes the following, according to the Institute of Race Relations:

  • Collecting and processing waste should be done by independent private-sector companies.
  • A public-private collaboration is key.
  • The government must provide an enabling policy landscape.
  • An efficient IT system is needed to manage appointing, paying, assisting, and overseeing the supply chain network.