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Waste Management

Sale of fake foods

Public concern regarding the selling of “fake foods” compelled the National Department of Health to issue an urgent directive to investigate allegations made regarding the sale of food products, especially products not labelled in accordance with the REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE LABELLING AND ADVERTISING OF FOODSTUFFS, R146 OF 01 MARCH 2010.

According to Regulation 146:  

  • No person shall manufacture, import, sell or offer any pre-packed foodstuffs for sale, unless the foodstuff container or the bulk stock, from which it is taken, is labelled in accordance with these regulations.
  • No person shall import, manufacture, sell, distribute or donate foodstuffs, unless a date marking is clearly indicated on the label or container of such foodstuff.
  • The date shall be preceded by appropriate words “best before” and/or “use by” and/or “sell by”, depending on the nature of the product; Provided that bbreviations shall not be permitted, except “BB” for “best before”, but the preceding words shall be written out in full.
  • The date marking may not be removed or altered by any person.

During September 2018, the Garden Route District Municipality’s Municipal Health Section, in conjunction with the South African Police Services (SAPS) conducted successful operations at “Spaza Shops” in the Hessequa Region.

The purpose of these operations was to address the sale of food products which have reached their “sell by” and/or “use by” and/or “best before” dates, as well as products that were not labelled in English and/or one of the other official languages of the Republic of South Africa.

Inspections were conducted at eighty-one (81) “Spaza Shops” in Riversdale, Heidelberg and Albertinia collectively. During the operations, aspects regarding labelling and advertising of foodstuffs were explained to shop owners/managers, and  products which were not labelled in accordance with this Regulation, especially those with no labels, inappropriate language presentation and no “sell by” and/or “use by” and/or “best before” dates, were confiscated and condemned.

When products that have reached their “sell by” and/or “use by” and/or “best before dates were found, shop owners/managers ere given the option to either return the products to the manufacturer or voluntarily surrender it for condemnation.

It is important to understand that date marking, is a best practice in the food industry, helping to protect both food quality and food safety. When the “sell by” and/or “use by” and/or “best before” dates of a food product has been reached, the risk of microbiological deterioration increases, which result in an increased health risk to the public.

In light of these events, the Municipal Health Section of the Garden Route District Municipality has decided to increase its monitoring programmes at all food premises, and to create greater public awareness.

Eden DM Recycling Mascot

Eden District Municipality has designed a recycling mascot which will be branded on all waste management and minimisation initiatives as decided by all municipalities in the district. The mascot will assist in creating awareness about waste minimisation matters and is also a means of encouraging younger generations to partake in waste minimisation.

Eden DM has procured a mascot to be used by all municipalities for any waste minimisation / management events. The mascot, Rocky (the Recycling Rooster / RRR / Alliteration Reduce Reuse Recycle) was designed with three different characters namely: ‘Cool’, ‘Superhero’ and ‘Boxer’.

Eden District Municipal Offices Recycling Programme

The Office Recycling Programme has been successfully implemented at all offices of Eden DM, in order to create waste minimisation awareness amongst employees.   A thousand cardboard recycling boxes, branded with the Eden Waste Minimisation Mascot and fifteen wheelie-bins, were procured for this programme.  These boxes were placed at all offices and emptied once a week into the wheelie-bins.

The objectives of the programme, include the following:
•    The provision of recycling receptacles at all Council offices;
•    Training of all Cleaners and responsible employees;
•    Interaction with local recycling companies; and
•    Awareness among employees about recycling.

Each office weighs and records their waste quantities on a weekly basis; these quantities will be published in Eden DM’s quarterly newsletter.  Between January 2017 and April 2017 (4 Months) a recorded 5077,5kg (5 tons) of recyclable material was recovered from Eden DM’s satellite offices in Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, George, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn, Riversdale, Albertinia and Heidelberg and Eden DM’s Head Office in George.  This is an average of 1,25 tons of waste diverted from landfill on a monthly basis.

Furthermore, the campaign is also driven with the aspiration to create awareness amongst the public that visits council’s offices, demonstrating Eden DM’s commitment towards waste minimisation by practising what they preach.

Waste Management is everybody’s business

During an Eden district wide study, it became evident that municipalities lack information, regarding the different types and volumes of waste, featured in their Integrated Waste Management Plans. For this reason, Eden District Municipality (Eden DM) took the initiative, to procure the necessary equipment required to conduct waste characterisation studies. This was done with the prize money received from the Greenest District Municipality Awards that was won in 2015.

From August 2015, the Eden DM Waste Management Section conducted waste characterisation studies in the Bitou-, Mossel Bay-, Knysna-, Hessequa- and Oudtshoorn Municipal areas. The reason behind these studies has been to obtain and provide a breakdown of the composition and quantities of household and commercial waste collected from different outlets and disposed at landfill sites. This information is needed to ensure proper integrated waste management planning.

A representative sample, relative to the total number of households per sub-area, was collected, identified, sorted and weighed. The waste was categorised into 15 different waste types, namely:

  • Soft plastics;
  • Hard plastics;
  • Paper;
  • Cardboard;
  • Glass metal;
  • Food waste;
  • Garden waste;
  • Textiles;
  • Wood waste;
  • Inert waste;
  • Nappies;
  • E-waste; and
  • Hazardous waste and more (waste that does not fall under the aforementioned categories).

The results obtained from the different sub-areas within the different municipalities, illustrated different trends in waste generation. These trends will be significant in identifying and prioritising the type of waste minimisation areas and management initiatives to implement in the various sub-areas. For example, home composting initiatives should be implemented in the sub-areas where garden waste was the most prominent component of the waste sampled.

A waste characterisation study is planned for early 2017 in the George Municipal area; whereafter similar studies will follow in the other local municipalities within the Eden district. The abovementioned studies will be performed on a bi-annual basis, in order to determine the seasonal waste generation trends. The majority of waste currently reaching the landfill site are recyclable materials.