Nappies Are Filling Up Our Landfills
Nappies Are Filling Up Our Landfills
The Issue
The average child uses more than 4,000 nappies between birth and potty training, all of which will end up in South Africa’s landfills. The evidence is clear — we need a shift to reusables or biodegradable nappies.
In November 2020, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment put in place regulations regarding Extended Producer Responsibility in terms of the National Environmental Management Waste Act. The new regulations oblige companies to take responsibility for the waste they were producing and so aimed to reduce the waste created in food and consumer goods packaging by ensuring that end-of-life products were managed by the organisations that produced them. In other words, producers/manufacturers are liable for managing the packaging waste when it is no longer needed. These regulations have already had a huge impact on the ways that retailers, producers, and importers have used packaging around their products, and have the potential to increase recycling and reduce waste.
However, the regulations do not apply to a very important waste stream — absorbent healthcare products — known to you and me as nappies (for infants and adults). The impact on the environment is devastating: increasing the collective aggregate of greenhouse gas emissions which in turn impact on climate change. Further downstream environmental harm is worth noting: possible groundwater contamination and probable harm to human, bird and animal life.
Please sign this petition to help us call on:
- Corporate entities in South Africa producing nappies to put an end to selling nappies that are not eco-friendly to South African customers AND to create affordable reusable or biodegradable disposable nappies for the South African customers
- Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, Barbara Creecy to extend the Extended Producer Responsibility to absorbent healthcare products including nappies, tampons and sanitary pads.
Nappies Are Ruining Our Environment! Let’s hold the nappy industry accountable.
Credit: This petition text was written with the assistance of an article written by Jennifer Smout On Daily Maverick
6,164
The Issue
The average child uses more than 4,000 nappies between birth and potty training, all of which will end up in South Africa’s landfills. The evidence is clear — we need a shift to reusables or biodegradable nappies.
In November 2020, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment put in place regulations regarding Extended Producer Responsibility in terms of the National Environmental Management Waste Act. The new regulations oblige companies to take responsibility for the waste they were producing and so aimed to reduce the waste created in food and consumer goods packaging by ensuring that end-of-life products were managed by the organisations that produced them. In other words, producers/manufacturers are liable for managing the packaging waste when it is no longer needed. These regulations have already had a huge impact on the ways that retailers, producers, and importers have used packaging around their products, and have the potential to increase recycling and reduce waste.
However, the regulations do not apply to a very important waste stream — absorbent healthcare products — known to you and me as nappies (for infants and adults). The impact on the environment is devastating: increasing the collective aggregate of greenhouse gas emissions which in turn impact on climate change. Further downstream environmental harm is worth noting: possible groundwater contamination and probable harm to human, bird and animal life.
Please sign this petition to help us call on:
- Corporate entities in South Africa producing nappies to put an end to selling nappies that are not eco-friendly to South African customers AND to create affordable reusable or biodegradable disposable nappies for the South African customers
- Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, Barbara Creecy to extend the Extended Producer Responsibility to absorbent healthcare products including nappies, tampons and sanitary pads.
Nappies Are Ruining Our Environment! Let’s hold the nappy industry accountable.
Credit: This petition text was written with the assistance of an article written by Jennifer Smout On Daily Maverick
6,164
The Decision Makers
Petition created on 18 March 2022