SOUTH Africa is running out of landfill space fast. With major hubs like Cape Town and Johannesburg facing less than five years of remaining landfill capacity, the linear disposal method of landfilling is not serving the country’s waste management challenges. In addition to the landfill airspace challenge, organic waste carries an estimated R8.7 billion annual cost on our economy through landfill practices.
Addressing the urgent need for organic waste diversion, Oricol Environmental Services and Cape Town Biogas have partnered to transform how the Western Cape handles organic waste, moving beyond simple disposal to a true zero-waste-to-landfill outcome.
As part of a broader industry network, the two companies participate in an organic waste diversion pathway anchored by a bio-digestion facility in Athlone. This facility, which serves various waste management providers to ensure a consistent feedstock supply, is currently the only plant in Africa capable of splitting biogas into two distinct, high-value output streams simultaneously. Altogether, the process transforms incoming organic waste into three recoverable commodities: clean-burning biomethane for energy use, beverage-grade CO2 for the food and beverage industry, and bioavailable nutrients for agricultural soil restoration.
“We have to look at the numbers to understand the scale of the challenge,” says Dirk de Wet, chief operating officer at Oricol. “The waste sector contributes 30.2% of South Africa’s total methane emissions, with the majority driven by organic waste decomposing in landfills. Through this partnership, we are treating commercial organic waste as the valuable commodity it actually is, recovering resources that the old model simply buries.”
The journey from waste to resource begins at Oricol’s permitted treatment facility in Cape Town. Here, expired or off-spec products undergo a secure depackaging process. This step is vital for brand protection, as it ensures non-compliant products cannot re-enter the market. While solid packaging is shredded for recycling, organic waste is recovered and sent via an offtake agreement to the bio-digester.
“Through this partnership, we have been able to process approximately 8000 tonnes of organic waste in 2025, and hope to grow this even more in 2026,” adds De Wet.
The timing for organic waste diversion and beneficiation is critical. The Draft National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2026, published in December 2025, formally designates organic waste as a priority waste stream for urgent national intervention for the first time in South Africa’s waste regulatory history. Nationally, waste diversion has fallen to approximately 10% today, a trajectory the NWMS 2026 describes as unsustainable.
In the Western Cape, the regulatory pressure is mounting for many commercial sectors. The province’s 100% organic waste landfill ban, embedded directly into waste management licences, takes effect in 2027. Businesses that have not secured diversion pathways before that deadline face compliance risks.
“For our clients, this is about staying ahead of a regulatory landscape that is moving fast,” De Wet adds. “Oricol and Cape Town Biogas are proving that South African businesses can meet these targets while contributing to a growing secondary resource economy.”
