After three years of planning, KwaZulu-Natal’s eThekwini City Health is ready to move on the implementation of the ‘Safe and Happy Drums’ project.

The drums have not been used before, and are safe for food and water storage.

In the eThekwini municipality, as in other parts of the country, street vendors trade in packaging drums, which are stolen or bought from drum collectors, reprocessors, reconditioners and chemicals industries. These drums are a serious health risk and are being sold to the public by vendors.

“A common problem in Africa is the dumping of unsafe drums, and the sale to the poor of chemically contaminated containers, which cause poisonings and environmental pollution,” says non-profit orga- nisation Responsible Container Management Association of Southern Africa (RCMASA) president Liz Anderson.

During April, the municipality started to replace old and used drums. This month it will create awareness of the dangers used chemical drums pose to the environment and people storing food and drink – and it will start tracing and warning culprits. June will see a start to the enforcement of the new regulations on used chemical drums.

“We do hope that this will elicit a better response from industry sponsorship in terms of corporate social and extended producer responsibility (EPR),” she adds.

She notes that the organisation would like to see greater industry support for a coordinated approach to EPR through sustainable collection and the reprocessing and reuse of used industrial packaging.

Further, industry needs to make the RCMASA’s assessment and audit protocol for drum and intermediate bulk container reprocessors a requirement for doing business, improving legal compliance, safety and reducing risks to users.

“We also need technical and financial support for our many activities. We are currently underresourced and need participation in our various work groups to improve awareness, knowledge and industry standards, especially in terms of regulations and indus- try best practice for industrial and retail chemical packaging.

“Industry needs to recognise and support our consultative status with the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling, and they should also participate in training and workshops,” she adds.
She notes that more support is needed from the chemicals sectors that use packaging and the packaging industry. This, she claims, would be a good start to put forward a solidly coordinated informed voice to government.

She states that the organisation needs government support to enforce regulations and international standards where these are currently not in place.

Government also needs to recognise the organisation’s acti- vities and provide assistance in developing a sustainable solution for the national collection of industrial chemicals packaging. This will be aimed at creating sustainable reuse and end-of-life disposal by all stakeholders.

Lastly, she says, government needs to come to an agreement with industry on self-regulation of the final collection model or regulations similar to the waste tyre sector’s.

Drums that have previously been used to store and transport chemi- cals are made of plastic, which absorbs the chemicals. Once these drums become a selling product for street vendors, they rinse out visible traces of chemicals and empty the residue into stormwater drains.

Even if these drums have been washed thoroughly, the chemicals leach into the water or food stored by the buyer, resulting in the risk of poisoning.

Similarly, the chemicals and resi- due being rinsed from these drums and poured into stormwater drains reach beaches, affecting water quality and Blue Flag status.

However, industry will not be exempt from being prosecuted for breaking the law in selling these used drums to traders.

By selling used drums to traders, industry is breaking several laws. Industry members who do not comply with these legislations, bylaws and regulations can receive a crimi- nal acts fine of up to R10-million or ten years’ imprisonment.

Industry has also been warned that if any of these contaminated drums are traced back to their company, the law will be enforced.