National food loss, waste reduction strategy on the cards
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s (DFFE's) Draft Strategy for Reducing Food Losses and Waste, published for comment in September 2023, will likely result in a newly promulgated national food loss and waste strategy in 2024, says alternative waste treatment company BiobiN South Africa director Brian Küsel.
“Businesses that produce large volumes of food waste will need to make provisions to divert their waste through alternative waste treatment methods, like composting for example.
“Numerous waste regulations have come into effect in recent years with the intention to divert more waste from landfill and improve recycling rates. We have seen this with the extended producer responsibility regulations and the waste classification regulations,” he notes.
The food and organic waste stream in South Africa generates about 12.6-million tonnes of food loss and waste a year.
The majority of South Africa’s food losses and waste, or 68%, occur in the early stages of production, with 19% occurring during post-harvest handling and storage, and 49% during processing and packaging. Of the food that is wasted, 44% is vegetables and fruits, 26% grains, 15% meat and the remaining 13% consists of oilseeds, tubers and roots.
Further, while the Western Cape has set ambitious targets for eliminating organic waste from landfill completely by 2027, the new Strategy for Reducing Food Losses and Waste will likely propose similar targets at a national level.
If this is the case, the food production sector will need to make significant changes to reduce food loss and waste along the supply chain, Küsel says.
The proposed Draft Strategy for Reducing Food Losses and Waste introduces a holistic approach to sustainable food and organic waste management through the introduction of four strategy goals.
These include creating an enabling environment for the implementation of food losses and waste strategy as its first goal, food losses and waste beneficiation and circular economy as it second, capacity building, education and awareness training as its third goal, and food waste diversion and greenhouse gas emission reduction as its fourth goal.
“We highly encourage businesses to be proactive with their food and organic waste management. If you have not already done so, look at implementing an on-site organic waste management solution, preferably an in-vessel composting unit. These are clean and highly efficient systems for processing large volumes of organic waste,” he advises.
“When a new draft strategy is implemented, it will likely bring more stringent organic waste regulations, which will place more responsibility on businesses.”
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation