The South African Government Printing Works (GPW) has announced that it is considering placing a nominal fee on printed government gazettes to stop office workers from printing pages which end up going straight to recycling.

GPW representatives told Parliament’s committee on home affairs that recycling vehicles sometimes arrive on a Friday, load up their bakkies and take the printed material straight for recycling. This could be considered wasteful given that the Government Gazette is also available online.

The Government Gazette, printed by the GPW, contains important notices such as, for example, the National Environmental Management Laws Amendment Bill (“the NEMLA Bill”), published in October this year requiring waste management professionals to contribute towards the clarification of a certain provisions and definitions in the Bill, including those in the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008.

Among clarifications is a call to re-examine the definition of “waste”. The period for comments closes on 15 November.

Aiming to “reduce” in the recycling hierarchy

The home affairs committee heard that in the last financial year 109 000 A4 pages were printed. The GPW does not keep stock of it anymore and is currently in talks with treasury to set the nominal value.

Different Gazettes will have different prices because of the number of pages, but the nominal value suggested is R5.

 

Source: News24

Edited for www.infrastructuren.ws by Frances Ringwood