ORGANIC WASTE
A review of organic waste management in 2022 Ever y year there seems to be a greater emphasis placed on addressing waste as a resource and creating a circular economy with different waste streams – this includes food and organic waste.
S
outh Africa sees an estimated 10 million tonnes of food go to waste annually – which equates to about a third of the food produced each year. An audit by the CSIR found that 40% of all waste that ends up in landfills in South Africa is organic or biodegradable. In 2022, we saw more attention on a national, regional and local level being given to different alternative waste treatment (AWT) technologies and processes that can diver t organic waste and process it into a resource. According to Brian Küsel, director of BiobiN South Africa, 2022 saw some impor tant milestones reached within the organic waste industr y.
Western Cape organic waste landfill ban “The big one that we were all watching was the Western Cape’s proposed 50% organic waste reduction requirement.” In 2017, the Western Cape Government made a policy decision to restrict 50% of organics being sent to landfill by 2022 and the prohibition of all organics to landfill by 2027. The landfill restriction and prohibition on organics will ensure that national waste diversion targets are met. In the Western Cape, 40% of all waste delivered to landfill is organic waste, estimated at more than 3 million tonnes annually.
3 0 FEBRUARY 2023
|
ReSource
Significant shifts have been seen over the past year, but Küsel asser ts that there needs to be more monitoring and waste data collected on-site, in order to understand where the province is in terms of the percentage that industr y diver ts using technologies like composting units. “The Western Cape is a good region to keep our eyes on with a complete organic waste diversion target on the cards by 2027.”
Voluntary food loss and waste agreement As stated above, 10.3 million tonnes of food and beverages are wasted per year in South Africa, yet 9.34 million people in the countr y suffer from acute food insecurity and almost 20% of its households have inadequate access to food. Specific to the retail sector, the Food Loss and Waste Voluntar y Agreement sets