European and North American companies have dumped waste in developing nations for years, often illegally. Now, with many pushing back, SA has no intention of becoming a replacement rubbish dump.

Since the 1980s, China has had an open-door policy for waste, taking in millions of tons for recycling every year. That is until 2018, when Beijing decided to restrict imports of paper, plastic, metals and e-waste, reportedly aiming for zero waste imports by 2020. So transnational companies found other places to dump  waste cheaply. ..