South Africa relaunches waste picker registration system to boost recycling integration

SOUTH AFRICA – The Paper and Packaging PRO Alliance has relaunched the upgraded South African Waste Picker Registration System (SAWPRS), a national database designed to integrate waste pickers into the country’s recycling economy formally.

The move comes after years of technical challenges with the initial version, which limited the ability to link buy-back centre transactions to registered waste pickers and hindered service fee payments.

Waste pickers, who collect and sort recyclables for resale, are central to South Africa’s recycling value chain.

Estimates suggest that informal waste reclaimers collect between 60% and 80% of all post-consumer packaging and paper recovered in the country.

Yet, despite their contribution, they have often been excluded from structured financial systems and consistent payments.

The upgraded SAWPRS seeks to change that by offering real-time reporting on materials, volumes, and payments, reducing administrative burdens for producer responsibility organizations (PROs) and ensuring cashless, auditable transactions.

“It has been a long and difficult journey to rectify the technical challenges encountered with the initial version,” said Paper and Packaging PRO Alliance executive director Bhavesh Patel.

The program aims to onboard 200 buy-back centres nationwide by the end of 2026, enabling service fee payments to an estimated 80,000 waste pickers.

The first milestone is the onboarding of 50 centres and the registration of 20,000 pickers by December 2025. Success in this phase will unlock further funding from PRO members to expand the initiative.

While SAWPRS was non-functional, PROs continued supporting waste pickers through separate projects, complying with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation.

These parallel initiatives will now be integrated into the national database, ensuring one auditable record of waste picker participation.

The relaunch has been driven by collaboration between waste picker organizations, government, NGOs, and the private sector.

A weekly task team has been established to troubleshoot challenges, drive awareness, and accelerate digital onboarding.

“With a fully functioning system and continued support, we can achieve the ambitious targets we’ve set for the next two years,” Patel said.

The initiative aligns with South Africa’s broader waste management goals, as the country struggles with rising landfill pressure and low recycling rates compared to global standards.

Experts note that formalizing waste pickers not only strengthens recycling systems but also improves livelihoods for some of the country’s most vulnerable workers.

As Patel emphasized, the upgraded SAWPRS is not just a technical fix, it represents a major step towards an inclusive, transparent, and sustainable waste economy in South Africa.

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