South Africa generates an estimated 900,000 tonnes of disposable nappy waste every year, with each nappy taking up to 500 years to decompose. This growing waste stream is placing immense pressure on an already strained waste management system, particularly in rural and informal communities.
Dr Marc Kalina, from the University of the Western Cape’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families and Society, said the scale of the problem is far greater than most South Africans realise.
“A nappy is made from a lot of different things, and they all break down differently,” he explained. “But the reality is there’s just a lot of plastic in there, and plastic takes a long time to break down. And beyond the complexity of it breaking down, it’s just a huge amount of waste. We’re generating so much of this across all our communities. From the rich to the poor, everybody’s using disposable nappies, and it’s just adding up.”
This build-up has become a “huge environmental and ecological concern”, one that South Africans are only now beginning to fully recognise.
Kalina says the crisis is driven not only by the volume of waste but also by deep inequalities in waste-collection services. In formal suburbs, refuse removal is regular and reliable, but in many townships, informal settlements and rural areas, waste collection is inconsistent or non-existent.
“In South Africa, we’ve got a big waste management problem in general,” he said. “But if you’re living in an informal settlement, a township, or a rural community, the service you get is not there, or it’s vastly inadequate to your needs.”
With few alternatives, residents are often forced to dump nappies in open spaces, fields, rivers and streams, creating serious hazards.
“Once it’s dumped, it’s only a matter of time before it ends up in our rivers, in the ocean, killing our livestock. There’s just an infinite number of health risks,” Kalina notes.
To address this growing crisis, UWC recently launched the Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHP) Waste Forum, co-chaired by Kalina and Professor Rinie Schenck. The forum will work with government, researchers, communities and industry to develop sustainable strategies for managing nappy and sanitary-product waste nationwide.
Listen to the full interview below:
VOC News
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