What happened
The World Bank has published a working paper examining how South Africa can shift from a linear plastic economy (make, use, throw away) to a circular one (make, use, recycle, remake). This means designing plastics that can actually be recovered and reprocessed into new products instead of ending up in landfills, and building the collection, sorting, and manufacturing systems to make that work at scale.
Why it matters
South Africa's plastic waste is growing faster than its ability to manage it, and this document likely identifies which parts of the plastic supply chain could be restructured to capture material value instead of externalizing the cost as pollution — which affects both manufacturing competitiveness and environmental liability.