Weekly eWASA News – 3 Sep 21

As you are aware, on the 5^th November 2020, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) published Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations for the Electronic and Electric (WEEE) sectors. This regulation has significant ramifications for all Producers, Distributors, and Retailers.

Extended Producer Responsibility applies to the following identified products or class of products:

• Large equipment (any external dimension more than 100cm)
• Medium equipment ( any external dimension between 50 and 100cm)
• Small equipment (no external dimension more than 50 cm)
• Batteries

Producer Obligations

• Develop and submit an extended producer responsibility scheme according to the Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations 2020
• Establish a producer responsibility organisation that must develop and submit an extended producer responsibility scheme according to Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations 2020 to the Department.

Download the full EPR regulations, regulations pertaining to the e-waste sector, and the lighting sector. On 19 January, the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Barbara Creecy, postponed the implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations to 5 May 2021. All existing producers and producer responsibility organisations must register with the department before 5 November 2021.

Health-e reports: \”The thousands of reclaimers who work across South Africa are credited with removing 80%-90% of the post-consumer products from urban and suburban spaces, yet they are still not recognised as formal employees by government.

An estimated 85 000 recyclers or waste pickers operate in South Africa, cleaning urban and suburban spaces, and research by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research shows they remove 80%-90% of the post-consumer products that are thrown away by society.

Members of the African Reclaimers Organisation in Johannesburg recently made the decision to call themselves “reclaimers” instead of “waste-pickers” or “waste recyclers”, as they are commonly referred to. They say that this is because they do not pick waste, they pick items of value and they reclaim what society has thrown away.\” Read more here.

Criminal charges have been laid against the Mumbai-based agrochemical giant UPL Limited (formerly known as United Phosphorus Limited) in the aftermath of the arson attack on its pesticide and other toxic farm chemicals warehouse in Cornubia, Durban, on 12 July.

Criminal case number CAS 06/09/2021 has been registered at the Verulam police station against UPL for “environmental pollution”, Dr Zakhele Dlamini, a senior official of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) told the KZN legislature’s portfolio committee on environmental affairs on Thursday. The Daily Maverick has more.

Retail group SPAR has announced new sustainability goals, which will introduce several green initiatives over the next four years.

Sustainable packaging has been rolled out for certain the group’s in-house ‘own brand’ products, in line with a short-term focus on the 10 categories that deliver 80% of the group’s house brands.

“The two-litre milk cartons used for extra shelf-life milk are 100% recyclable and made from 87% renewably sourced material,” it said. “The reverse of the pack also includes information about a circular economy and how shoppers can assist with recycling.”

SPAR has also committed to having 100% of plastic packaging which is reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. BusinessTech has more.