Day: May 24, 2022

JOHANNESBURG— Johannesburg’s landfill sites are bulging with plastic waste.

The city’s biggest landfill site located in the Turffontein area is a hive of activity as waste trucks arrive to drop off their deposits.

Despite a 2018 move by South Africa’s most populous city, making it mandatory for residents to separate waste from the source, few bother.

Informal waste pickers comb through the trash in the hope of finding something valuable.

They are trying to recover a variety of materials ranging from plastics, cardboards, bottles and wood before they are flattened.

Many of them are registered on the city’s database but some are undocumented foreign nationals operating informally to sell their collection to recycling companies.

For many, this is their only source of income to support their families.

Pikitup provides waste management services to the City of Johannesburg.

Muzi Mkhwanazi, Pikitup Spokesman explains the problem of plastic waste left in landfill.

“Plastic is not biodegradable as other kinds of waste streams like wood and such materials. So it lives for a very, very long time. Now, if you compact it, it eats (takes up space) on our landfill airspace. It’s difficult to compact, It becomes a nuisance when there’s wind to neighbouring or adjacent properties around this landfill site. Then we get complaints from people. It also goes into our waste water streams ending up in the sea, contaminating water streams, killing fish in the sea. You know, it is a real, real, real problem.”

Whole Earth Recycling offers a service to residents, collect all your various recycling in a dedicated plastic bag and they sort it for you at a recycling centre.

Whole Earth Recycling manager Carmen Jordaan says informal recycling at landfill poses health hazards to the pickers.

“If we can stop using non-recyclable plastics in our packaging material, and encourage more people to start recycling we will have a better rate of recycling. Although there is sorting that takes place at the landfill, it is not ideal as it is mixed with food waste, medical waste and that is not hygienic”.

This week a conference in the city of Gqeberha, South Africa, will discuss how to pressure governments and big businesses to commit to a reduction in plastic production and waste as it takes a toll on the continent’s environment.

According to the organizers, the “Towards Zero Plastics to the Seas of Africa” will bring together top decision-makers in the plastics value chain on the continent.

The conference follows the UN Environmental Assembly’s resolution for the development of a legally binding treaty on plastic waste by 2024.

Waste campaigner Musa Chamane says the conference is necessary to pressure decision-makers to engage with the problem.

“They (conferences) do make a difference because it’s a platform where we manage to voice our ideas and the industries are there; the civil society are there and governments are there, we all in one room. So if we’re pushing and say they have to make sure that they reduce the amount of plastics that they produce, and they even go as far as having an international treaty to make sure that they phase out plastics into the environment. It’s a good thing that they are thinking of that because some countries have already banned plastic, like single-use plastics,” said Chamane.

A 2018 research report by the U.N. and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa estimated that Africa had an average waste collection rate of 55% and only 4% of it was recycled.

This is below the African Union’s target for municipalities on the continent to recycle at least 50% of their waste by next year.

The conference is hosted by the Sustainable Seas Trust’s African Marine Waste Network from May 23 -27.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that “bystander countries” were suffering due to sanctions against Russia and called for talks as the African Union (AU) prepared a mission to foster dialog between Moscow and Kyiv.

Ramaphosa spoke as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited South Africa on the final leg of a trip to the continent that aimed in part to rally diplomatic support for Ukraine.

South Africa has close historical ties to Moscow due to the Soviet Union’s support for the anti-apartheid struggle. It abstained from a United Nations vote denouncing the invasion of Ukraine and has resisted calls to condemn Russia.

The European Union has aggressively pursued sanctions and a severing of economic ties in a bid to punish Moscow for its military operations in Ukraine, a strategy which Ramaphosa said was causing collateral damage.

“Even those countries that are either bystanders or not part of the conflict are also going to suffer from the sanctions that have been imposed against Russia,” he said during a news conference in Pretoria.

Africa, which has already seen millions pushed into extreme poverty by the pandemic, has been hit hard by rising food costs caused in part by disruptions linked to the war.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat and barley, and two-thirds of the world’s exports of sunflower oil used for cooking. The conflict has damaged Ukraine’s ports and agricultural infrastructure and that is likely to limit its agricultural production for years.

In an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle earlier on Tuesday, Scholz called on countries to increase oil and gas supply to curb global energy price increases.

Standing beside Ramaphosa, Scholz said he was pleased to have the opportunity to discuss South Africa’s position on the war but underlined that what he called an attempt by Russia to alter international borders by force was unacceptable.

“Mr. President, I think it is important that we continue these discussions intensively,” he said. “We are very concerned about the outcome of the war for Africa.”

Senegal’s President Macky Sall — the current chairman of Africa’s top political bloc, the AU — said on Sunday he was preparing to visit Kyiv and Moscow to foster peace.

Ramaphosa, who has been invited to attend the G-7 summit being hosted by Germany next month, said the only way to resolve the war is through dialog and Africa “does have a role to play because it has access to both leaders (of Ukraine and Russia).

Source: Voice of America

Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, wishes to extend her heartfelt congratulations to Ms Felicia Msiza, on her appointment as the new CEO of Raubex Group.

Msiza’s appointment as CEO of the JSE listed Construction Company is a monumental milestone for the women of South Africa, especially Black women, who are notoriously underrepresented in senior leadership positions, signals a new era of women making inroads in previously male-dominated sectors.

In congratulating Msiza, Minister Nkoana-Mashabane said: “The appointment of Ms Msiza to lead a powerhouse in the construction industry is a welcome shift in the over-representation of men at the top echelons of the construction and civil engineering sectors.”

The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities urges other JSE-listed companies to follow the commendable step taken by Raubex Group, and advance their efforts in bringing more women into top management as well as across the organisation, particularly in technical fields. The department also encourages the construction industry to ensure women, youth and persons with disabilities are adequately represented across the value chains. 

Through deliberate actions of transforming male-dominated industries like this one, South Africa will be able to achieve the target of Gender Equality by 2030 in Goal 5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals which the private sector have signed too, through their compact. All sectors must join hands to implement the commitments South Africa has made at the Generation Equality Forum in France 2021 to accelerate the implementation of the SDG’s in the eight years remaining to 2030. 

Source: Government of South Africa