CITY ENGAGES BUSINESSES ON NEW WASTE TARIFF STRUCTURE
The City of Ekurhuleni’s Waste Management Business Unit hosted a webinar on Wednesday, 10 December 2025, for its business stakeholders on the 2025/26 waste tariff structure, its policy clauses, and implementation thereof.
Tariffs are one of the revenue-generating sources for any municipality. Although municipalities receive subsidies from the national government, collection through tariffs still accounts for over 40% of municipal revenue.
Thus, it is important for businesses to comply with the city’s waste management policies and other environmental legislative requirements for the preservation of the environment.
Following an extensive audit conducted by the city’s Waste Management Business Unit on compliance with the payment of the set waste tariffs by businesses over the past few months, it became evident that the implementation of this policy is beneficial to both stakeholders with business standing to benefit the most from the provision of the tariffs such as:
- Transparent billing system;
- Improved collection reliability;
- Cleaner business districts; and
- Predictable budgeting.
For a municipality as big as the City of Ekurhuleni, getting tariffs right and maximizing the revenue available from tariffs is vital for ensuring its financial sustainability.
During the session, focus went to the tariff structure breakdown, zooming into the ‘Availability Charge’, one of the city’s business compliance obligations.
The ‘Availability Charge’ refers to a monthly charge that the municipality may levy against any property and vacant stand which does not utilise the municipal waste management services, where this service is readily available, and the city has the necessary capacity to provide services to the property. This charge is used to defray the cost of the waste generated by the user, to defray the cost of operations and maintenance of waste disposal facilities and for the preservation, sustenance and enhancement of the environment.
The ‘Availability Charge’ is applicable in the business complexes, and a minimum tariff is based on the type of container and service frequency per week or per month as follows:
| Availability Charge: The following containers are used in the business complexes and a minimum tariff must be based on type of container and service frequency: | Tariff 2025/26 |
| Minimum charge: All other properties not being levied a CoE Refuse Removal Tariff and not falling within 1,75 and 6 cubic metres below including vacant stands. | R584,46 (Per month) |
| Minimum charge: 1,75 cubic metre container per week for non-food premise | R526,21 (Per week) |
| Minimum charge: 6 cubic metre container per week for restaurants, food handling or manufacturing premises and businesses with food outlets | R1 654,15 (Per week) |
The implementation of the council-approved waste tariff policy will aid the city to render more efficient, effective, reliable and consistent waste management services to all customers of the city.
· The presentation can be downloaded below.
