Plastic Material Flow Analysis: Historic and Current

There is an urgent need to tackle the major challenge of plastic waste, as the production and consumption of plastic is directly proportional to the amount of plastic waste generated. The South African government formulated a Waste Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Roadmap to facilitate the transition to a circular economy. The flows and stocks of plastic were quantified using material flow analysis for 2019 with the most complete and recent data available. Furthermore, the report estimates the historic plastic quantities from 1950 to 2020 and evaluates data uncertainty in the process. The flow results for 2019 show an estimated 1 341 000 tonnes of plastic polymer and 1 804 00 tonnes of plastic product were produced in South Africa, about 2 447 000 tonnes (42 kg/capita) were consumed, 715 000 tonnes (12 kg/capita) remained in the system as stock in-use, 1 732 000 tonnes (30 kg/capita) of plastic waste were generated and 352 000 tonnes were recycled Furthermore,60 Mt of plastic was produced in the past 70 years, of which 41 Mt was consumed, 19 Mt remained in the system as stock in-use,32.8 Mt of plastic waste was generated and approximately 8.2 Mt (20% total waste generated) was recycled.