Gauteng targets landfill crisis with zero-waste plan and R646.6m environment budget

By Lebone Rodah Mosima

Gauteng will tighten waste rules, develop a zero-waste plan and pursue a regional Eco-Park serving Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni as it moves to cut reliance on landfills and build a recycling economy, Environment MEC Ewan Botha said on Thursday.

Tabling the Gauteng Department of Environment’s 2026/27 budget vote in the provincial legislature, Botha said the province generated 45% of South Africa’s 106 million tons of waste annually, while only 11% was diverted from landfill.

“We landfill the rest, and our landfills are running out of airspace,” Botha said. “That is not a waste statistic. That is a market failure. Every ton we bury is a feedstock someone could have processed, a job someone could have held, an SMME that never got started.”

He said the department would convert its seven-year-old Integrated Waste Management Plan into a Zero Waste Plan and finalise Waste Minimisation Regulations that would