The current poor state of waste service delivery by South African municipalities is a concern due to the potential impacts on human health and the environment. All municipalities are faced with similar challenges including lack of funding, low priority afforded to waste management and capacity problems to deliver services, although to different degrees. Despite this rather discouraging situation, certain municipalities have managed to overcome some of these challenges and good waste management practices are to be found. This paper reports on the development of a Toolkit for municipal waste management service delivery, based on some of the good waste management practices currently implemented in different municipalities across all the categories of municipalities in South Africa.
The intention is to facilitate information sharing and learning between municipalities. An assessment of a random sample of some of the best-performing municipalities in the country including why they do so well, would give an indication of the direction that waste management services should take towards improved service delivery. The success of some of these municipalities may be duplicated in other municipalities.