The development of partnerships as a mechanism for providing the services and facilities required for Integrated Waste Management should be considered. The categories of partnerships that should be considered include:
- Public-public partnerships: this can be a partnership (between a District municipality and local municipalities) for collaborating on waste services such as on the establishment of a regional waste disposal facility or in instances where local municipalities have limited capacity to provide the delivery of waste services,
- Public-private partnerships (PPP): for collaborating on financial assistance for waste services, establishment of waste management facilities, establishment of separation at source and other waste management initiatives i.e. development and management of waste disposal facilities, establishment and management of MRFs, transfer stations, and recycling facilities.
- NGO/Community based organisations (CBO's): partnership with the municipality in order that they may participate or carryout awareness and education campaigns and programs.
The following provides a snapshot of how these partnerships could work, as well as indicates the various aspects that a municipality could partner on with the identified stakeholders.
- Public-private-partnerships: could be formed by calling for proposals from interested parties to indicate how they are going to deliver a certain aspect to waste management. Once the tender has been concluded and the municipality should sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in order that the conditions contained in the MOU should be met. The municipality could decide to play an oversight role while the service provider will be responsible for the delivery of the service. Some of the services could include carrying out recycling initiatives through Co-operatives (Co-ops), private company or through a community based waste collection method etc.
- Leases: in this type of a partnership a municipality would lease land to Co-ops or a private company to establish a buyback centre in order to carry out recycling;
- Privatisation: of a waste collection service i.e. the transportation aspect to the service / transfer of ownership whereby a driver-owner scheme could be in place, this entails the owner of a truck being the actual driver that provides the service on behalf of the municipality;
- Joint ventures: in a wide variety of areas such as in operating a waste disposal site, or in the construction of a waste disposal facility where a private company would be responsible for the project or certain aspects thereof.
Partnerships in the delivery of waste management services should be encouraged and municipalities should ensure that there are binding agreements in place to ensure that the services will be delivered. The formation of PPP's for the implementation of IWM plans should be investigated. PPP's for smaller local authorities could greatly reduce the cost of equipment and salaries and should be encouraged. Partnerships in waste collection can prove very beneficial for small local authorities and should be considered for public-public as well as for public-private partnerships.