Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle, Disposal
A “brand owner” is defined as an individual or category of persons that owns a specific range of products.
Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
An E-waste PRO function that is outsourced to an appropriate organisation due to the need for confidentiality in handling sensitive industry trade data. The subcontracted operator of the “black box” function is explicitly prohibited from disclosing any information about producer market share or data, including to the E-waste PRO and EEE producers themselves.
Collection involves gathering waste, including preliminary sorting and initial storage, for the purpose of transporting it to storage, manual or mechanical processing, and metallurgical processing facilities.
E-waste processors are service providers who use mechanical, chemical, biological, or thermal processes to treat E-waste fractions received from recyclers and recover secondary resource materials.
An E-waste dismantler is a service provider who manually recovers specific value fractions and components from E-waste.
E-waste recycling encompasses various pre-processing and end-processing steps in a simplified value chain, including manual dismantling, mechanical size reduction, physical/mechanical separation, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, electrometallurgy, and refurbishment.
As outlined in Schedule 3 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Amendment Act, 2014 (Act No. 26 of 2014), E-waste is classified as both hazardous and non-hazardous (general) waste. From a precautionary principle perspective, the global default classification of “hazardous” is applied throughout the Plan.
Global Definition:
“EEE” refers to electrical and electronic equipment that relies on electric currents or electromagnetic fields to function properly and is designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1000 volts for alternating current and 1500 volts for direct current. In this context, “dependent” means requiring electric currents or electromagnetic fields to fulfil at least one intended function.
DEA Definition (as per Section 28(1) Notice):
“Electrical and electronic equipment” refers to equipment that relies on electric currents or electromagnetic fields to function properly, including equipment used for generating, transferring, and measuring such currents and fields.
Informal E-waste processing involves attempts to maximise sales profits by extracting valuable fractions from E-waste without proper treatment incentives. This approach typically employs inappropriate and unsafe methods, including breaking and smashing valuable components and burning off undesirable materials and encasings of valuable fractions (e.g., copper in cable).
An informal waste collector is an individual or individuals who collect materials with potential value, such as packaging waste and E-waste, from streets, public spaces, households, waste dumps, and landfill sites. They do not perform this collection as salaried employees but often operate at subsistence levels. These collectors are sometimes referred to as “Pickers.”
An Industry Waste Management Plan as envisaged in Section 28 of the NEMWA.
These markets involve demand for materials recovered from E-waste processing or recycling, whether they are local or international. All recovered materials, whether hazardous or non-hazardous, must comply with international and national policies and legislation. Trading in recovered materials that disregard these policies and legislations constitutes illegal trade.
Manual processing is a process of manually separating and concentrating E-waste fractions through sorting, separating, cleaning, emptying, dismantling, de-pollution, and segregation.
The National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008 (Act No. 59 of 2008) and the National Environmental Management: Waste Amendment Act, 2014 (Act No. 26 of 2014)
The National Pricing Strategy for Waste Management
Non-valuable fractions of E-waste refer to fractions for which there is no market demand or represent unwanted costs.
The Original Equipment Manufacturer, also known as OEM, is the company that manufactures or assembles the original product under its own brand name.
The term “producer” encompasses any individual, category of persons, or brand owner engaged in the commercial manufacture, conversion, refurbishment, or import of new and/or used—
These products are intended for distribution in the Republic of South Africa. The local manufacturer or importer (or their assigned agents) of new and/or used EEE is considered a producer when placing EEE on the South African market at the point of manufacture or import.
A PRO is an independent, non-profit industry management body that oversees the E-waste Industry Waste Management Plan. Its responsibilities include designing and defining the E-waste management regime applicable to South Africa, requiring registration of EEE producers and recyclers, monitoring EEE products placed on the South African market, ensuring safe and beneficial collection and recycling of end-of-life EEE, setting and managing standards for participants in the E-waste management system, planning and disbursing E-waste subsidies, and auditing the system for adherence and compliance to the Plan.
Recycling refers to any recovery operation involving the reprocessing of waste materials into products, materials, or substances. However, this excludes energy recovery and the reprocessing of materials into fuels or for backfilling operations.
The E-waste value chain comprises four stages: collection, dismantling, pre-processing, and processing.
Valuable fractions of E-waste refer to fractions with market demand, for which the market is willing to pay.
WEEE, or electronic waste, refers to all electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) items and their parts that have been discarded as waste by their owners without the intention of re-use.
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ERA E-waste Recycling Authority (ERA) is a registered Non-profit Company (NPC) • CIPC Registration Number – 2018/248881/08 • ERA NPC is registered as a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) in terms of Section 18 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (NEMWA) N0. 59/2008 • DFFE PRO Registration Number 19/7/6/E/PRO/202106009/002
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