Govt to take measures to deal with listeria-contaminated waste

Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has assured South Africans that all food products contaminated with listeria will be disposed of safely, North Glen News reports.

Molewa expressed a concern that the recall had caused some panic where residents ended up throwing their food products into their normal domestic waste bins, and this ended up on municipal landfills.

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She said this took place before the announcements from outlets that food products could be brought into the various outlets across the country.

“As we know, with the high levels of waste picking in the country, we could have waste pickers accessing the contaminated food if this food ends up in waste disposal facilities accessible to this group of vulnerable people,” Molewa said.

Molewa announced that she has put in place measures to deal with the disposal of contaminated waste.

The measures put in place are as follows: 

• The contaminated waste may be accepted for treatment at a licensed incineration, non-burn or co-processing facility, or may be accepted for disposal at a Class A landfill.  Class A landfills are specially designed and engineered for acceptance of hazardous waste and are not accessible for waste picking.
• Any condition of the respective waste management licence of the receiving facility that may prohibit receipt of such waste will be suspended until such time as all of this waste has been treated and/or disposed of.

The Minister said these measures will ensure that there is enough capacity in the country to timeously dispose of the infected waste, and remove the possibility of the infected waste being accessed through waste picking activities.

She added that waste treatment and disposal facilities have been made aware of these measures, as well as provincial and municipal authorities.

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