As South Africans prepare to stay indoors for the next three weeks, our waste generation at home is projected to increase.

The Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA) supports the continuation of waste collection, processing and effective disposal during this lockdown period in order to ensure that communities remain clean and healthy.

“Continuing public waste management is essential; waste generation will increase at household level, while it will decrease at a business level. Household waste collection is an essential service and should continue within all municipalities,’ says Leon Grobbelaar, President at the IWMSA.

“Non-removal of waste will have devastating consequences on communities due to the spread of other diseases, including from fly and or rodent infestations.”

“We fully support the President in his decision to implement a country wide lockdown. We would like to encourage all South African citizens to be mindful of their waste generation during this period. Municipal and private waste services will be operating with skeleton staff and we should therefore not overburden them with increased and mixed waste volumes,” says Grobbelaar.

“Potentially contaminated waste streams could have detrimental health effects for all the thousands of waste reclaimers residing illegally on our 1000 odd landfill sites within South Africa,” says Grobbelaar.

“At an individual level we should be separating our waste as much as we can during this time. Your recyclable waste should be separated, from your non-recyclable waste, cleaned and rinsed with water and soap before stored for collection Recyclables can then be collected when the waste system is operating at full capacity again,” says Grobbelaar.

“Now is the time to implement and maintain good household waste disposal habits.”