An initiative to protect the health of people who use old drums to carry or store potable liquids has been launched by the Responsible Packaging Management Association of Southern Africa (RPMASA).

Through this ‘safe happy drums project’, street traders in KwaZulu-Natal will be able to buy brand-new 25-litre drums for transporting and storing consumable liquids, such as drinking water, juice, traditional medicines, sorghum beer, etc, at half the normal price. This initiative will prevent people from using contaminated drums and creating a health and safety risk to themselves and the environment.

Currently, used drums are either bought or stolen and rinsed before being sold to unsuspecting consumers. But washing doesn’t eliminate chemical residues in the drums, which is a major health risk.

In South Africa, any number of poison-related deaths have been reported after people have consumed water from contaminated plastic drums. In addition, skin burns and chest problems are common, and an environmental pollution problem is ultimately created. The best solution is to provide informal traders with easily identifiable, affordable, new, clean, safe drums.

This situation prompted eThekwini Health to contact RPMASA for a solution and so began the initial project in 2005. From the outset, valuable ongoing support has been given by Engen, CHEP and Nampak’s Megapak division.

Another packaging industry sponsor is Blowpack (a division of Polyoak Packaging), which is now donating 1 000 new drums to kick-start the project. Thereafter, thanks to the collaborative efforts of all sponsors, the RPMASA will be able to supply new, clean drums to traders at just R15/drum.

‘From our donation, 48 drums are being delivered to each of the 13 co-operatives,’ explains Blowpack divisional executive, Don Whittaker.

‘It’s imperative to prevent people from being poisoned by contaminated drums, both in the city and rural areas.’

Despite this initial success, more sponsorship is needed to make this project sustainable says RPMASA’s president, Liz Anderson. ‘The project is ideal for packaging companies’ social responsibility programmes and we need innovative ideas to raise money from events such as fun runs,’ Liz adds.

‘With more funding we’d like to see this initiative rolled out nationwide, and ultimately into Africa. We encourage drum and packaging manufacturers, as part of their social responsibility programmes, to participate in this initiative.

Companies may also score BEE points, as sponsorships qualifies as enterprise development, since funds are effectively assisting black-owned enterprises by subsidising the cost of drums,’ Liz explains.