Table 4.

Flows, data sources and reliability for plastics in 2019.

Flow	Data source			Reliability
	Data source 1	Data source 2	Data source 3
Production
Domestic primary plastic	1,380,000 (EUROMAP, 2016)			Medium reliability (M). Data was an estimation, based on concrete data of previous annual plastic production and assumptions.
Domestic plastic product	2,195,162 (StatsSA, 2020a)			Medium reliability (M). Data was an estimation from monetary equivalent.
Consumption
Primary plastic consumed (virgin)	1,504,000 (Plastics SA, 2020)	1,504,000 (SAPRO, 2020a)	1,504,000 (Bizcommunity, 2020)	Plastics SA (2020) – High reliability (H). Both flow values from this data source were based on empirical data and surveys. Also, Plastics SA is a credible data source for the South African plastics industry. SAPRO (2020a) & Bizcommunity (2020) – Both data sources support the primary data source (Plastics SA, 2020) for both flow values, as it referenced the primary data estimates.
Primary plastic consumed (recycled)	337,745 (Plastics SA, 2020)	337,745 (SAPRO, 2020a)	337,745 (Bizcommunity, 2020)
Trade
Import primary plastic	813,274 (UNComtrade, 2020)			High reliability (H). Mass flow values were from empirical data and survey.
Import plastic product	436,831 (UNComtrade, 2020)
Export primary plastic	357,789 (UNComtrade, 2020)
Export plastic product	190,630 (UNComtrade, 2020)
Waste management
Plastic waste generated	1,855,436 (Mass balance)			Low reliability (L). Flow computed by balancing corresponding inputs and outputs using Sankey diagram software.
Plastic waste landfilled	1,669,892 (Mass balance)
Plastic waste for recycling	352,500 (Plastics SA, 2020)			High reliability (H). Mass flow estimates were based on empirical data and surveys. Plastics SA is credible as a data source and an acknowledged representative of all sectors of the South African plastics industry.
Plastic waste import	17,000 (Plastics SA, 2020)
Plastic waste export	14,755 (Plastics SA, 2020)