Local Newspaper Highlights Animal Waste Disposal Problem

Our local Mpumalanga newspaper – The Lowvelder - today published a front page article about decomposing cow heads that were found on the bank of the Crocodile River.

This article shocked many readers due to the graphic nature of the photographs, but I want to commend the Lowvelder for taking a very serious environmental issue and highlighting it in a very realistic manner.

Sure, non of us really want to see pictures of rotting animal heads before breakfast, but on the other hand, it is high time that people are made aware of a environmental problem that is threatening public health in a very real manner across South Africa.

The fact that dumping animal remains is highly illegal almost bothers me the least at this point in time. What really bugs me is that anybody would actually go so far as to bury animal remains on the bank of a major river. The pollution potential is simply mind boggling – not to mention the potential for spreading dangerous pathogens to communities downstream.

It is clear that the responsible parties have very little chance of getting away with this. Tracing the ear tags back to the feedlot and then back to the person that bought those animals are mere formalities.

The next important question is what will happen to these remains now? Will the remains be taken away, and if so, will the remains be cremated at the mortuary in Nelspruit – which currently is the only legal local option available as you cannot take any diseased or potentially diseased animal material to a rendering plant for disposal and there are no burial sites in the MLM region that are permitted to accept condemned animal material . The only other remaining option will be to transport these rotting heads more than 200km to the nearest permitted site outside Witbank where this type of material can be legally buried...

2 comment(s) for this article

stephanie
Tuesday March 23, 2010 at 4:30:26 PM

This is a huge problem it seems. Does Mpumalanga have any animal rendering facilities? In Germany there is a sophisticated animal rendering industry and abattoirs are legally obliged to make sure all their waste is sold to the companies operating these plants?

Regards,
Stephanie

Piet Kruger (Convertech)
Tuesday March 23, 2010 at 5:39:35 PM

Hi Stephanie and thank you for your valid comment!

This specific incident, we discovered, was not linked to an abattoir but rather to a wholesaler that sells offal and that dumped these heads after a prolonged and unplanned power outage that caused similar spoilage at numerous shops in Nelspruit.

As to the issue of rendering plants, there are a small number of registered facilities in Mpumalanga, but they are all operating at maximum capacity and cannot accept any additional waste.

A desperate shortage of rendering facilities is experienced countrywide, and the current legislative framework makes it very costly and time consuming to obtain the required permits and as a result feed manufacturers are importing protein when the local abattoir industry is overflowing with waste that does not have anywhere to go.

As the MAMRF, we are actively looking at this issue and the viable alternatives that currently exist in order to help address the waste management crisis facing abattoirs in South Africa at this moment.

Regards
Piet

Local Newspaper Highlights Animal Waste Disposal Problem

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