Author name: Nicole Felix

Waste management is a heavily regulated sector due to the potential for adverse environmental risks when certain waste streams are not managed correctly. It is no different with organic waste. With the new ‘Norms and Standards for Composting’, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment aims to encourage more sector to adopt composting technology to capture and process organic waste.

For the retail and agricultural sectors, sustainable waste management has become a priority across the full supply chain. While businesses are looking at ways to divert waste streams from landfill and improve materials recycling, an important consideration for the food supply chain is biosecure waste management.

Knowing that organic waste has the greatest environmental impacts on landfill, this waste stream is fast becoming more regulated. We have seen this with the proposed 50% landfill ban by 2022 and a complete ban by 2027. Adding to this regulation, businesses that produce large volumes of organic waste are required to manage it on-site to prevent unwanted environmental impacts and keep it separate from other waste streams, like solid recyclables.

South Africa has a carbon intensive economy, mainly due to our current reliance on coal for power generation. With this, there are many other greenhouse gas (GHG) contributors that make us the world’s 12 biggest emitter of GHG’s, including our food supply chain. If we want to achieve our carbon reduction targets, business as usual will not cut it.

Many South Africans will be getting their hands dirty this month while planting a tree for Arbor Month which is taking during September. Whether you are greening an urban environment or helping to restore a natural landscape, one common factor will determine the health of our trees and indigenous vegetation; that is the health of our soil.