To unlock the value embedded in electronic waste (e-waste), waste management specialist Oricol manages collection, compliance documentation and certified recovery, helping businesses meet regulatory obligations while facilitating a circular economy.

E-waste is South Africa's fastest-growing waste stream by volume, and rising gold and copper prices are making recovery increasingly attractive. Aligned to this, urban mining is becoming a serious secondary resource proposition, says Oricol Environmental Services COO Dirk de Wet.

The 2026 Draft National Waste Management Strategy identifies waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a priority intervention stream, citing a recycling rate below 10% alongside the fastest volumetric growth.

Government pilot programmes in the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape have collected about 86 000 kg of e-waste to date, against an estimated 360 000 t generated nationally each year.

Monitors, circuit boards and batteries carry lead, cadmium and additional mercury alongside recoverable gold, platinum, indium and copper.

When these materials are buried, it risks toxic metals leaching into groundwater while losing valuable metals permanently,  presenting an environmental liability and resource destruction simultaneously.

To mitigate environmental risks, e-waste has been prohibited from South African landfills since August 2021. However, this has also resulted in valuable materials exiting the economy permanently while potentially hazardous substances move through channels that are not adequately monitored.

“This year we are seeing more enforcement on the e-waste stream to close this gap, and with a new National Waste Management Strategy on the radar, this trend is likely to continue,” says De Wet.

The new national strategy targets 40% diversion of collected waste from landfill within five years and lists WEEE among six producer responsibility schemes earmarked for rapid development between 2026 and 2031.

Norms and standards for e-waste operators are also in development, which will draw a hard line between licensed and unlicensed handlers.

Meanwhile, grace periods that had softened the introduction of extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations for electrical and electronic equipment have now lapsed. Producers are expected to meet gazetted collection and recovery targets that increase each year and fee payments no longer discharge that obligation.

“For years, e-waste compliance was treated as a paperwork exercise. That era has ended. The question is no longer whether you have a policy on e-waste. It is whether you can produce the evidence trail to prove that your e-waste stream is accounted for [through] an accredited treatment and recovery pathway,” says De Wet.

He explains that regulators want traceability measures proving that material reached a licensed facility and was handled under specific conditions.

To help businesses meet these requirements, Oricol functions as the first link in the compliance chain, managing the stage at which material leaves a client's premises and enters a documented recovery route.

The company collects e-waste from corporate and industrial generators, stores and transports it under controlled conditions and securely destroys data-bearing devices securely.

Every load is documented and issued with a recycling or safe disposal certificate and material then moves to specialist recovery partners that extract metals and recoverable materials

“A circular economy for electronics is best built by a network of suppliers that can document the disposal and recovery process, while ensuring that sensitive data is destroyed,” De Wet concludes.