New paradigm for sanitary waste management

New paradigm for

Sanitary waste management

Emerging sanitation technologies promote a new paradigm for the collection and disposal of menstrual waste products that is both safe and sustainable.

By Ednah Mamakoa, technical officer, SASTEP

The disposal of used feminine hygiene products raises socioeconomic, cultural, religious and environmental concerns. Menstrual hygiene waste is usually thrown away with other solid wastes and ends up in landfills. In other cases, they are flushed into a toilet, resulting in sewage reticulation system blockage, or they are disposed of in pit latrines, contributing to rapid pit filling.

Other than throwing menstrual waste in the garbage, there is currently no clear plan in place for the safe disposal of menstrual waste, particularly in communal and public spaces. Waste streams, both solid and sanitary, are anticipated to grow as urbanisation and access to disposable products increase. As a result, new sanitation technologies should be able to handle these wastes. New technologies

The South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme (SASTEP) has shortlisted the SHE (Safe Hygiene for Everyone) device as part of the suite of technologies to be assessed for commercialisation in South Africa. The SHE sanitary pad disposal system is a fully automated, sterile sanitary pad disposal device designed to give dignity, privacy, waste reduction and safe hygiene.

With a batch processing time of under 30 minutes, SHE thermally treats menstrual hygiene waste with reduced emissions and low particulate matter (PM2.5). It reduces menstrual hygiene waste to ash, keeping it out of landfills, toilets, pit latrines and water bodies. The technology is envisaged to be licensed from an international technology partner, Biomass Controls PCB, to a local partner for commercialisation and local manufacture.

The SHE device will introduce an innovative technology into the South African sanitation value chain that adds value in a sanitation subsegment that is largely overlooked. Providing women and girls with tools such as mandatory premenarchal training and access to adequate disposal facilities, to manage their menstrual cycles and dispose of the wastes safely can improve attendance in schools. This will contribute to the creation of a world in which no one is held back simply because they menstruate.

Regulation

In its ‘Policy on the Disposal of Sanitary Waste’, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) indicates that incineration is the recommended method of treatment for large volumes of sanitary waste. The incineration of sanitary waste is specifically stipulated in the draft Health Care Risk Waste Management Regulations (part of NEMWA [No. 59 of 2008]) drawn up by the Department of Environmental Affairs. The Occupational Health & Safety Act (No. 85 of 1993) states that commercial or industrial volumes of sanitary waste may not enter the general municipal waste stream and commercial sanitary waste must therefore follow the requirements for healthcare risk waste. The regulations mean it is no longer practical to legally dispose of large volumes of sanitary waste in landfills.

The South African Bureau of Standards passed the first reusable sanitary standard, SANS 1812. This regulation is one of the first in Southern Africa for washable sanitary pads, and it is paving the road for other African countries to follow suit.