An economic case for regulating against the use of non-deposit carrying glass containers of beverage in South Africa

Abstract

As a result of minimal private cost many people dispose of non-deposit bearing glass containers in ways which cause glass pollution: hazardous broken bottles and litter. This pollution imposes costs on users of the affected environment and on municipalities, which have most of the responsibility to clean up, although in South Africa the two main glass packaging producers also play a role by operating a recycling system. A case study was carried out in the Port Elizabeth area in which exploration is made of the glass that does not get recycled and an intuitive analysis is made of the costs of different options for managing recyclable glass waste. It is concluded that the case deserves further investigation for introducing legislation in South Africa making bottle deposits mandatory.