The opportunities and value-adding activities of buy-back centres in South Africa’s recycling industry: A value chain analysis
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAGE
Abstract
This paper investigates the entrepreneurial opportunities and value-adding activities of buy-back
centres in the recycling industry. Using Porter’s firm-level value chain framework as theoretical
framework for this analysis, a concurrent mixed method design was used to collect information
from 67 buy-back centres across South Africa by means of face-to-face interviews, accompanied
with a questionnaire with open-ended and close-ended questions. Buy-back centres’ competitive
advantage is that they have the facilities to add value to the recyclables according to the recycling
industry’s standards and specifications. To be viable, they need to attract large and sustainable
volumes of recyclables, which often poses a challenge. Increased volumes of recyclables can
translate into more jobs and income earning opportunities at all hierarchical levels in the recycling
industry. A recycling model that increases the volumes of recyclables recovered by buy-back
centres through informal sector activities is proposed. Such a model should facilitate changing
citizen behaviour and implementation of, among others, responsible separation at source programmes to increase the volumes of cleaner recyclables. Increased supplies of recyclables should,
however, be accompanied by an increase in the demand for products made from recyclables, to
absorb the increased supply.
Description
Keywords
Buy-back centres, Entrepreneurship, Informal recyclers, Recycling, Value chain
Citation
Viljoen, J. et al. (2019).The opportunities and value-adding activities of buy-back centres in South Africa’s recycling industry: A value chain analysis. Local Economy, 34(3), 294–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094219851491