Africa’s burgeoning urban waste crisis outpaces infrastructure investment - TimesLIVE

Two men sit on top of a hill at the end of a narrow road in Johannesburg‘s Kya Sands. But the hill is no natural feature — it is a mountain of illegally dumped rubbish, piled so high it now swallows the road beyond.

“When I started as a ward councillor in 2021, this mountain was very small. I could even drive my vehicle down this road,” municipal councillor Devon Steenkamp said. “It’s now quite a high, big mountain; there are always constant fumes.”

The mound is only the edge of a dumpsite that mushroomed after the municipal landfill reached capacity and closed in 2010. Adjacent to it, waves of waste spread across a valley as smoke rises and trucks unload more rubbish.

Johannesburg’s mounting waste problem reflects a broader challenge across Africa. Rapidly growing cities, including Lagos, Dakar and Accra, are generating waste far faster than many municipalities can collect, recycle, or safely dispose of it.

Africa’s urban population is projected to double by 2050 to 1.4-billion people, according to a joint report last year by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the African Development Bank, Cities Alliance and the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa.

The UN environment programme estimates that more than 90% of waste generated in Africa is disposed of at uncontrolled dumpsites and landfills, often with associated open burning. The World Bank projects that waste generation in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 124% between now and 2050 — the fastest growth of any region.

In Alexandra, Johannesburg, goats forage through piles of household waste as residents navigate pavements strewn with plastic, food scraps and construction debris.

Linda Makole, 75, is especially concerned about children, many of whom live in one-room homes and rely on pavements and a few parks for space to play.

“Small children can’t possibly be healthy living in this environment,” Makole said. “Weekly, my landlord takes all his tenants’ garbage in a van and goes to dispose of it,” she said. “I don’t know where he dumps it.”

Pikitup has identified more than 2,000 illegal dumping hot spots and allocated R115m in 2025/26 to tackle the problem.

Some residents said their rubbish went uncollected for up to four weeks. The Johannesburg Crisis Alliance has blamed the disruptions on labour disputes, financial constraints, and an ageing fleet.

Unreliable waste collection has driven demand for informal waste haulers.

“If the municipality is not collecting the general waste, then of course people are going to phone anybody with a truck to come and collect,” said Carmen Jordaan, who co-runs Whole Earth Recycling.

Jordaan said legal disposal required registration and landfill fees, prompting some informal haulers to dump waste illegally in areas such as Kya Sands.

Bryce McCall, a former South African equestrian show jumper, has watched a separate dumpsite sprawl alongside his home, where he runs a stables and beekeeping business.

“I used to have 70 horses here; now we’ve got 28,” McCall said. “Clients don’t want to come here anymore.”

Illegal dump sites also burn trash to make room for more, polluting the air, soil, and water and exposing nearby communities to toxic substances, Jordaan warned. “You’re burning toxic plastics, and we’re all inhaling that,” she said.

“At night, the air is so toxic you can’t breathe. We’ve got air purifiers in our bedroom,” McCall said. “The air quality is so bad [bees] don’t produce as they should.”

Suzan Oelofse, a principal scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), said that poorly managed waste also attracts vermin and can clog stormwater drains, increasing the risk of flooding.

“The waste generation rate has consistently outpaced investment in new waste management infrastructure,” Oelofse said, adding that the city remains heavily dependent on ageing landfill sites while recycling and composting lack momentum.

South Africa’s draft national waste management strategy warns that landfill space is depleting at an “unsustainable rate”. The pressure is already evident in Johannesburg, where only two of the city’s four municipal landfills still accept general waste.

Oelofse said a recent CSIR study found that on average, Johannesburg’s landfills have less than a year of disposal capacity remaining.

“If we’ve got years, we’re lucky,” Jordaan said. “It’s really close to that tipping point.”

Simply building more landfills is difficult because suitable land is scarce and environmental regulations are stringent.

Oelofse estimates that up to 80% of Johannesburg’s waste could be diverted through recycling and organic waste treatment if households and businesses separated waste at the source.

Pikitup is also pushing separation at the source to preserve dwindling landfill space, with plans to expand recycling infrastructure and collaborate with waste reclaimers.

Recycler and law student Nomvula Phaliso, 35, said waste pickers are already helping keep recyclable material out of landfills but need greater support, including safe access to bins, community buy-back centres, protective equipment and storage.

For Jordaan, keeping waste out of landfills also requires changing how people think about what they throw away.

“People think, ‘Get rid of it.’ But where is it going?”