PLASTIC BAG LEVY BLOWING IN THE WIND
Funds raised since 2004 meant for recycling plastics
ONLY about half the R1.8-billion raised by the plastic supermarket bag levy since it was introduced 14 years ago has been officially allocated to recycling.
This despite the fact that the levy was originally supposed to go towards development of the recycling sector.
The figure has emerged since the plastic bag levy featured in former finance minister Malusi Gigaba’s February 21 budget speech.
Gigaba said he would be increasing the tax by 50% to 12c a bag and it would be implemented on April 1.
The levy is applied to the manufacturers of the plastic bags, but is ultimately passed on to consumers who buy the bags at the tills for varying prices from 60c up.
It was introduced in 2004, coupled with a minimum limit on the thickness of the bags to aid recycling and promote reuse, after a pact between the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), organised labour and business.
The stated intention was to encourage shoppers to use fewer bags and thereby reduce plastic pollution and pressure on overstretched landfills, and the money raised was meant to be used to develop the recycling industry and expand its workforce.
A section 21 company, Buyisa-e-Bag, was established to achieve this aim.
Nearly a decade and a half later, according to Treasury figures, R1.8-billion has been raised via the plastic bag levy and just R919.6-million has been allocated to recycling projects.
At the same time, plastic pollution has escalated to crisis proportions.
According to Two Oceans Aquarium campaigner Hayley McLellan, who spoke in Port Elizabeth last week, South Africans use about eight billion single-use plastic shopping bags a year.
“Plastic, epitomised by these bags, never disappears, and a large percentage ends up in our oceans,” she said.
“There, it breaks up into micro-plastics which are consumed by marine organisms and transferred up the food chain, ending up on our dinner plates.”
Currently, the equivalent of one dump truck per minute leaked into our oceans, she said.
“If we continue business as usual, by 2050, in terms of weight, there will be more plastic than fish in our seas.”
The Treasury said that funding raised from the levy was not ringfenced for the recycling industry as this strategy was no longer considered best practice.
“It does not allow for efficient allocation of resources to pressing national priorities and may result in either underor over-allocation.”
The plastic bag levy money was therefore channelled into the National Revenue Fund and allocated to departments via the annual budget. The department allocations were determined after collating and assessing the business plans submitted by different department divisions.
“If the case made in a business plan is strong, the amount allocated could even exceed the revenue from the levy.”
According to Treasury tables, the plastic bag levy total of R1.8-billion raised over the last 14 years included R41.2-million in 2004-05, R258.2-million in 2010-11 – the year Buyisa-e-Bag was shut down – and R190.6-million in 2017-18.
The total of R919.6million allocated to recycling and chemicals and waste management over the same period included R12-million in 2004-05, zero in 2007-08, R150.3-million in 2010-11, zero in 2012-13 and R450.3-million in 2017-18.
Over the same period, the Environmental Affairs budget allocation included R1.7-billion in 2004, R3.3-billion in 2010-11 and R6.6-billion in R2017-18.
McLellan said if the money had been properly ringfenced and used to manage waste and promote recycling, the country could by now have got plastic pollution under control.
“Instead, the hundreds of millions are going into a pit and there’s no accountability or transparency as to how it is being used.”
The only solution was to join the countries that had phased out single-use plastic bags completely, like Bangladesh, China and Rwanda, she said. Wildlife and Environment Society Algoa Bay branch committee member and veteran litter clean-up coordinator Tim Douglas-Jones said he agreed that urgent changes were needed.
“There needs to be clarity and publicity as to how exactly the plastic bag levy funds raised are deployed,” he said.
“We also need a combination of further penalties, rebates and alternatives to control the production, use and disposal of plastic.”
Plastics South Africa chief executive Anton Hanekom said his organisation was not happy with the way the plastic bag levy funds were managed.
“The agreement was that they would be ringfenced. Now they can be allocated anywhere deemed to be a national priority,” Hanekom said.
“We believe some are still going to DEA, but we have no evidence of this.”
Asked about these concerns, Owen Willcox, chief director of economic services in the Treasury’s Public Finance Unit, said his department was happy to entertain efforts to improve the situation.
“We are constantly looking to improve our country in all spheres including the state of our recycling, so we are open to the receipt of further business plans from the DEA and the possibility of scaling up allocations,” he said.
Plastic, epitomised by these bags, never disappears, and a large percentage ends up in our oceans
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