Insight & Article Archive

The BBC200 Project is a PRO Alliance-led initiative to integrate 80,000 waste pickers into South Africa’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system by digitising 200 buy-back centres by the end of 2026.

Using the SAWPRS platform, the project will enable:

• Digital onboarding of 200 BBCs nationally
• Cashless service fee payments to waste pickers when working in conjunction with the transactional and cashless payment solutions
• Formal waste picker integration into the EPR framework
• Real-time reporting to PROs on materials, volumes, and payments

Parallel programmes will back-pay existing SAWPRS registrants and integrate existing individual PRO programmes onto SAWPRS, ensuring all waste pickers are registered on the national database with auditable payment records.

Reporting into the Waste Picker Integration Working Committee, a multi-stakeholder project team, which includes the waste picker organisations and PRO member representatives, meets regularly to address any challenges that may hinder project progress and to discuss initiatives to drive awareness, education and registration of waste pickers onto the system.

The BBC200 Project represents a scalable, inclusive model for future-proof EPR implementation.