ReSource August 2018

The official journal of the Promoting integrated resources management

ISSN 1680-4902 • R50.00 (incl. VAT) • Vol. 20 No. 3 • August 2018

Waste

Going back to basics, understanding your waste stream

Technology

Pioneering power, addressing the problem of plastic waste

Innovation

Reviving an industry with technology and biomass waste

Sustainability Coming together to tackle waste on a global scale

oilkol

an environmental enterprise industry insight

“It is important to ensure that landfills are designed and operated in a responsible and sustainable manner.”

The Environmental A Team, SRK Consulting

is printed on 100% recycled paper

The people keeping it clean Heavy industry is a critical part of our economy. But disposing of the waste they produce in a way that’s safe for people and the environment takes years of expertise, scientific savvy and biochemistry knowledge.

Not just anyone can do it. That’s why EnviroServ employs the most highly-qualified professionals for the job.

Like our National Process Operations Manager, Avinash Ramsaywok. He’s just as passionate about protecting the planet as you are. He plays golf at least once a week, so helping to protect the environment is in his best interest.

With a BTech in Chemical Engineering and eight years’ experience at EnviroServ, he’s the right guy for this demanding job and takes pride in running a compliant operation.

Because expertise is important, but so is having employees who live the EnviroServ values of passion and integrity, who are dedicated to working towards delivering waste solutions that are environmentally responsible and effective.

Volume 22, No. 3, August 2018

CONTENTS AUGUST 2018

ON THE COVER Oilkol’s managing director, Piet Steyn, discusses the informal waste sector, South Africa’s growth strategy and the company’s search for purpose in the midst of a changing industry. P6

08 WORLD NEWS

REGULARS 3 5 8 36 40

President’s Comment Editor’s Comment News Round-up Fleet & Equipment Events

SOLID WASTE 12 Holistic solutions for modern waste management 16 Solid waste management in Africa 17 Understanding your waste stream

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22

UNPACKING WASTE STREAMS

LANDFILLS 19

Life after death for landfills

GREEN RECYCLING 22

Extracting value from biomass waste

SUSTAINABILITY 25 26

Creating a cleaner world

BIOMASS MAGIC

Teaming up to tackle ocean waste

GREEN BUILDINGS 28

The zero-carbon revolution

WASTE-TO-ENERGY 30 32

Empowerment through innovation Towards waste-to-energy

HEALTHCARE RISK WASTE Hazardous waste management goes high-tech

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EMPOWERING INNOVATION

in association with

infrastructure news

infrastructure4

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}

www.infrastructurene.ws

for a

cleaner

environment

Making a tangible contribution Waste poses a major challenge to society that requires new thinking.

By pre-processing waste and treating it through co-processing, Geocycle contributes directly to solving the global waste challenge.

In 2017, it spared 85 football fields of space from becoming landfill and prevented the greenhouse gases of 250 000 cars. www.geocycle.com • 011 657 2390

For a zero-waste future

V/2018/Geocycle2/Resource

president’s comment

Changing with the times During the 42-year existence of the IWMSA, 20 presidents have been inaugurated before me, all of whom were highly respected and each with a specific vision for the Institute. Some failed to reach the targets they had set out to achieve while others did so with resounding success.

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ver the years, the IWMSA has persisted, not only because of the skill and dedication of its office bearers, but because all remained faithful to the ideals of past presidents and the founding statements of the IWMSA. South Africa is in the midst of a waste crisis and our nation is warring against waste.

Economic growth has been strained, jobs losses are all too evident, businesses are suffering, and municipalities are financially unstable, which all indicates an economic crisis. The considerable challenges that we face with regard to waste management in South Africa are all too real, and immediate intervention is required to overcome these challenges.

We understand that when times change, we should follow; that loyalty to our founding principles requires rethinking in line with the changing times and its challenges.

The IWMSA can no longer act in isolation if it is to contribute meaningfully to meeting the demands of today’s waste challenges. Now more than ever, the Institute must join hands with its fellow South Africans, and cooperate with international organisations. We must learn from shared experiences and expertise, address

waste challenges in our country effectively, and realise the much-needed potential benefits that are currently tied up in waste, as a commodity.

As with all the past presidents, my success and vision can only be measured by what I do to ensure change. In order to do so, we must harness new ideas, align ourselves with local and international technologies, empower and train our youth, empower our citizens with the skills they require to work harder and smarter, learn more, and claim our position as the leading provider and advisor of South Africa’s waste industry.

As the new president, I wish to congratulate Brendon Jewaskiewitz as the vice-president together with the branch chairpersons who form the IWMSA council. I would also like to thank Jan Palm, our past president, for his guidance and support during his term of office – he has made us proud. A special word of thanks to head office and the branch managers who form the backbone of the IWMSA, ensuring that members receive all the benefits they are entitled to.

WasteCon 2018 The IWMSA’s biannual flagship event – WasteCon 2018 – will take place at Emperors Palace between 16 and 18 October 2018. The theme

Patron members of the IWMSA

Leon Grobbelaar, president, IWMSA

‘Implementing the Waste Hierarchy – Reduce your waste footprint!’ invites a magnitude of papers sharing expertise, technologies and much more, which are desperately needed to implement the fight against waste in South Africa, Africa and the world. If we want to give meaning to the terms ‘circular economy’ or ‘cradle to cradle’, we must join hands and work together.

We look forward to welcoming Mr Ad Lansink, a Dutch politician, and the ‘father’ of the Lansink Ladder, which gave birth to the waste hierarchy as we know it today. Not only will he be explaining the real meaning of the waste hierarchy but also the implementation of the hierarchy in the circular economy, as published in his latest book.

Speakers from Austria, the USA, Namibia and of course South Africa will also be presenting.

WasteCon 2018 is an event not to be missed and will provide delegates with an opportunity to network and understand the complexities of the waste Industry.

Last but not least, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all IWMSA members for placing their confidence in me and the newly elected council. We are open to comments, suggestions and proposals to provide a bigger and better IWMSA and to serve our environment.

O I LKO L

editor’s comment

Publisher Elizabeth Shorten Editor Liesl Frankson Managing editor Alastair Currie Head of design Beren Bauermeister Designer Ramon Chinian Chief sub-editor Tristan Snijders Sub-editor Morgan Carter Contributors Paul Cartwright, Leon Grobbelaar, Torben Kristiansen, Michele Muller Client services & production manager Jayshree Maharaj Production coordinator Jacqueline Modise Financial director Andrew Lobban Distribution manager Nomsa Masina Distribution coordinator Asha Pursotham Printers United Litho Johannesburg Advertising sales Jodi Haigh Tel +27 (0)11 467 6224 Cell +27 (0)83 710 9788 jodih@lantic.net Publisher No.9, 3rd Avenue Rivonia, 2191 PO Box 92026, Norwood 2117 Tel +27 (0)11 233 2600 Fax +27 (0)11 234 7274/5 www.3smedia.co.za Annual subscription subs@3smedia.co.za R200.00 (incl VAT) South Africa ISSN 1680-4902 Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa Tel: +27 (0)11 675 3462 Email: gail@iwmsa.co.za is copyright protected and All material herein may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without the prior written permission of the publisher. The views and opinions of authors expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher, editor or the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa. © Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.

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Riding the crest of the innovation wave

wise man once said: “You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.” That wise man was Albert Einstein and the sentiment could not be truer, especially for the South African waste sector.

According to waste management specialist Averda, South Africa generates over 42 million cubic metres of waste and most of it ends up in landfills. What’s more shocking is that this equates to about R17 billion wor th of waste that is dumped each year.

What at first glance seems like one of the countr y’s biggest problems could actually turn out to be one of our biggest oppor tunities if we add a little innovation into the mix. For tunately for South Africa, the concept of innovation in the waste sector is not a new one and results from the first South African Waste Sector Sur vey, conducted five years ago, show a surprisingly high level of waste innovation activity.

For us to take our problem-solving to the next level, the industr y’s innovation activity needs to be translated into an increased diversion of waste away from landfilling towards recycling and recover y. These are more sustainable methods of waste management that not only assist in reducing our dependency on landfills but also have the potential to generate more revenue for the economy.

A per fect example of this kind of innovation that kills two birds with one stone is the countr y’s first biorefiner y facility launched by the Depar tment of Science and Technology and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Not only does the facility address the issue of biomass waste through technology, but its ultimate aim is to extract wor th from waste (by creating high-value products) while reviving an industr y in the process (more on page 22).

Another example is the Dung Beetle Project on page 30, which seeks to tackle the problem of plastic waste, deforestation and the continent’s energy crises through the creation

of an eye-catching engineering solution that conver ts plastic waste into energy. Innovation is not necessarily about reinventing the wheel, in many cases it’s about taking something that already exists, improving on it and repurposing it (like Averda did on page 35). Whatever your approach to innovation might be, it’s essential that you have a thorough understanding of the landscape you’re working to change (check out Africa’s first waste management outlook on page 17) and that you truly understand your waste stream (more on page 12).

As the industr y’s premier waste conference approaches – WasteCon 2018 – I am excited to see how the industr y is integrating innovation into its operations and what role innovation will play in the implementation of the waste hierarchy (find out why you should attend WasteCon on page 39).

It’s clear that the innovation wave is washing over the South African waste sector in a way that not only promotes efficiency in waste management operations but encourages problem solving on multiple levels, and we are proud to shine a spotlight on some of these innovations in this edition of ReSource.

editor

Liesl Frankson

ReSource is endorsed by:

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cover story

Feeding Monsters Piet Steyn, managing director of Oilkol, remembers a time in the late 1950s and 60s when people used to drag trolleys behind them through the streets collecting waste.

Over 60 years later, has all that much changed?

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hese people, who were mostly unemployed, collected glass bottles and called ‘bottelbekke’. Our parents warned us against them and said that they abduct children. To an uninformed child, these people seemed like boogeymen of whom we were scared. Thankfully, as time moved on and the South African economy grew, those poor people disappeared,” he notes. Half a century later, the reality is that those poor people did not disappear. They are still here and, instead of refundable-deposit glass bottles, their little trolleys are filled with cardboard

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and plastic. These modern-day ‘bottelbekke’ – or, rather, waste pickers – form part of the waste industry’s informal sector.

“This all sounds quite good for South Africa’s growth strategy, as the waste industry was identified to be a major job creator. However, is it really?

Are these jobs sustainable?” questions Steyn.

The Polokwane Declaration of the Department of Environmental Affairs set a goal of ‘Zero Waste by 2022’.

To achieve this, Steyn believes that our attitude towards waste needs to change. “I know this initiative is largely focused on diverting waste away from landfills, minimising the disposal of hazardous wastes and beneficiating others; however, growing South Africa through the waste industry while practising responsible waste management is a contradiction. It is the creation of a false economy because zero waste would mean that there is no future for the informal waste sector,” Steyn explains.

Getting to the root of the problem Standard waste management practices are built on the waste hierarchy, which starts with reduction.

Steyn believes that the answer to the waste problem lies here, at the start. “We should

endeavour to eliminate the creation of waste, but we should also be mindful that this would limit the opportunities for the informal waste collectors who are already desperate people eking out an existence from waste,” he notes.

Steyn believes that we should not be able to sleep peacefully while desperate people rummage through the waste we create. “Seeing these people reminds me of the shocking pictures of children dragging mining carts behind them in dangerous coal mine tunnels in the 1800s. We are looking to the mining of waste to create much-needed employment in South Africa,” he adds.

“While bottom line greed is debilitating, unemployment should be the scariest monster of all..”

cover story Oilkol cleaned up the used oil business and became a world-class ISO 14001:2015 certified environmental enterprise in the process

In addition, the demand for waste as feedstock for manufacturing is governed by simple economic principles of supply and demand. Should the treatment and processing cost of feedstock be too high and cheaper by-products from other industries be available, the by-product will be used as feedstock. If not, the by-product becomes waste and – in the larger scheme of waste management – we are back to square one.

As a case in point, one can consider the petrochemical and plastic industries. By-products from crude oil refining and natural gas processing end up as feedstock for the manufacturing of various forms of plastic. Steyn notes that the fate of plastic in the environment has been the subject of much discussion with bans being implemented, among other measures.

Recently, a large petroleum company stated that a ban on plastics would result in a dent in the demand for oil supply. “From this, one can only gather that recycling plastics may lead to decreased profits in the petroleum industry and subsequent job losses, and then another monster is created.

“Why would I be contemplating this ‘negative’ outlook on the waste industry? Maybe it is because seeing the struggling informal waste collectors reminds me of our own search for purpose, as Oilkol, and the people who shared in defining our purpose,” Steyn says.

Overcoming bottom line greed “I have been involved with Oilkol for the past 23 years. How time flies and how things have

changed! I started in a company that was involved in the dirtiest business I had ever seen. “We cleaned up the used oil business and built Oilkol into a world-class ISO 14001:2015 certified environmental enterprise. We have always believed that our biggest investment is our people and it is indeed these people that built this company,” Steyn asserts.

During a Road Freight Association conference in 2001, the transport industry was warned that by 2006 it would have lost a large component of it’s labour force. While Steyn says he was sceptical about this projection at the time, it turned out to indeed be the case.

“In my 23 years at Oilkol, I have buried 36 friends who were also my colleagues. Our staff turnover is not high and people do not leave the company, except for those we lose due to their time on our planet running out. To those who have passed, rest assured, your labour during our mission made a difference, and in our own small way we have chosen to honour your outstanding commitment with a memorial plaque,” says Steyn.

“To a child, a monster may be someone whose shoes they did not have to walk in; to others, it is industry; to the people heading these industries, it may be government or bureaucracy. But the real monster we keep on feeding is greed,” he insists.

Steyn believes it is imperative that a strong, sustainable economy be created without raising false hopes and economies.

“As a young farmer in 1933 during the depression, my grandfather had to go to work on the roadbuilding teams for 25 cents a day to keep

In honour of those who have passed, Oilkol has erected a memorial plaque so they may know that their labour during the company’s mission made a difference

his family going, as the drought made farming impossible. Many of his generation had to do this at the time, and made one of the biggest social investments in our country and in our time. They built the roads later generations benefitted from.

“Maybe what we need now to create positive jobs is to have young, unemployed South Africans build roads, railways, dams or water pipelines to the drought-stricken areas while receiving skills and training at the same time. While bottom line greed is debilitating, unemployment should be the scariest monster of all,” he points out.

“At Oilkol, we have been working for the environment for the past 47 years. Our objective is to become one of the few 100-year-old companies in South Africa and certainly not another monster that needs to be fed,” he concludes.

086 110 1961 www.oilkol.co.za

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news round-up

SUSTAINABILITY NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD Funding the climate change fight in Africa Seven of the ten countries in the world most threatened by climate change are in Africa, which has devastated African economies. In response to this, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is championing a cause to create the Africa Financial Alliance for Climate Change (AFACC). The AfDB recently brought together key continental and global stakeholders for an open dialogue on creating the AFACC. The Alliance seeks to bring together Africa’s financial sector, including ministers of finance, central banks, insurance and reinsurance companies, sovereign wealth and pension funds, stock exchanges, and

global thought leaders to mobilise climate finance for Africa. It also hopes to come up with concrete proposals to mobilise domestic and international finance for climate-resilient development in Africa.

According to Akinwumi Adesina, president, AfDB, the financing needs to meet the ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement in Africa are enormous and the bank could not achieve this task alone. The launch of the AFACC will take place during the Africa Investment Forum in South Africa, from 7 to 9 November 2018, and will bring together heads of financial institutions.

Straws suck Emperors Palace Hotel and Casino recently launched a campaign dedicated to doing less harm to the environment by scrapping the use of plastic straws at its Aurelia’s and Rosetta’s restaurants.

The campaign, entitled Straws Suck, is part of the entertainment complex’s ongoing commitment to both reducing its carbon footprint as much as possible and introducing innovative, green initiatives that make a positive, noticeable impact.

Instead of plastic straws, Emperors will offer customers a BioStraw upon request. This is a 100% biodegradable straw made from mielie cobs and other plants. According to the resort, the BioStraw requires far less energy and effort to recycle than its plastic counterpart.

“We realised that simply doing away with straws at two of our most popular restaurants is a huge step in the right direction, and we challenge more businesses to take up the challenge and do away with straws too,” says Tiaan Schultz, manager: Food and Beverage.

“We would also like to thank our guests in advance for supporting The Palace of Dreams

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in its efforts to go green and do its part to conserve the environment,” he says.

Restaurants the world over are increasingly using biodegradable straws

A call for fines to fight fatbergs People who cause blocked sewers by flushing away inappropriate items and substances should pay fines to compensate for the clean-up costs.

That’s the opinion of the UK’s waste management agency, which says that man-made blockages cost water companies millions every year, cause floods, and are a potential health risk.

According to waste management agency Business Waste, incidents that can be traced back to particular individuals or businesses should be pursued by the law in the same way that polluters are prosecuted.

Mark Hall, spokesperson for the UKbased agency, says it’s not just the parent who routinely flushes soiled nappies and wipes down the toilet. “It’s the company that flushes away chemicals and sediment, which is just as likely to waste other people’s time and money.”

He adds, “It’s a national epidemic, and people just aren’t getting the message.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think of their drains as some sort of magic waste disposal unit where their rubbish is flushed away and becomes somebody else’s problem.”

Calling for fines for the worst offenders, Hall says that deterrent laws should be backed up with better education and help for householders.

“Some water companies give away free fat traps to customers so that fatbergs don’t start in their drains. These simple ideas should be available to everyone.

Companies can buy industrial-sized drain traps, so they have no excuses either.”

Individuals, employees and company directors all need to take responsibility to ensure that drains and sewers are kept clear.

news round-up

Retailer announces zero-waste-tolandfill vision

Cooking waste is notorious for blocking drains. Fat clumps together and causes fatbergs, which eventually completely block sewers

Wet wipes are made of plastic fibres and do not break up in the way toilet paper does. Even those marked ‘flushable’ on the packet cause blockages

Woolworths has made history by becoming the first retailer in South Africa to announce its vision of zero packaging waste to landfill.

This means that the retailer aims to have none of its packaging end up in landfills, which requires 100% recyclable material and a supportive recycling infrastructure.

As part of this vision, the retailer has announced its commitment for all its packaging to be either reusable or recyclable by 2022.

This means that the business is working towards removing all packaging that is currently not recyclable, focusing on removing unnecessary single-use plastics from stores (such as plastic straws, earbuds and plastic shopping bags) and ensuring ongoing customer education on the role of packaging in the elimination of food waste.

Several in-store trials are currently under way at selected stores in order to engage customers on the new plastic reduction efforts, including:

• Wooden cutlery and paper straws are being rolled out in NowNow and WCafes with a view to completely phase out plastic cutlery and straws. Plastic straws are no longer available for purchase in store.

• Paper-stemmed earbuds will be on the shelves by the end of October and plastic earbuds will no longer be sold in store.

• A pilot coffee cup recycling programme is currently under way in NowNow stores, with a view to rolling out nationally.

• The retailer is trialling reverse recycling vending machines, where customers can bring in their recyclables and put them into the vending machine so that they can be recycled.

• Woolworths is also trialling a new range of affordable, reusable shopping bags.

Global warming can be limited to 1.5°C

Industrial waste is prone to block drains and put sewer workers at risk

Nappies are problematic for drains and sewers and are notorious for causing blockages

“Households who wash away the dirt and scraps from food containers need to be immediately re-educated.”

A new study published in Nature Energy shows that global warming can be limited to the 1.5˚C target set out by the 2018 Paris Agreement by transforming how we move around, heat our homes, and use devices.

Arnulf Grubler, lead author of the study and acting programme director at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, says the study analysis shows how a range of new social, behavioural and technological innovations, combined with strong policy

support for energy efficiency and low-carbon development, can help reverse the historical trajectory of ever-rising energy demand.

Drawing on detailed studies of energy used in transport, homes and offices, and in the manufacture of consumer goods, the study found evidence of a two- to fourfold reduction in the amount of energy required to move people and goods around, to provide comfort in buildings, and to meet the material needs of growing populations, particularly in the global south.

industry insight

Dalton landfill – sugar cane rehabilitation

With South Africa’s ever-increasing population, more landfills need to be constructed to keep up with increasing waste production, which requires safe disposal.

Recovered scrap metal from a former industrial waste site

KZN Wartburg landfill – golf course rehabilitation

Planning and managing landfills for sustainability

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lthough there is a growing trend in reducing the volume of waste produced – as well as the alternative use of waste as a measure to reduce the need for landfill space – municipal landfills will still be required for years to come.

However, most municipalities are finding it harder to identify suitable land for the development of these landfills. For a start, locations for landfills can only be considered feasible if there is geotechnical stability, and if current and potential future land-use allows; there are also issues of environmental sensitivity, social impact, health and safety, and economic feasibility to consider. The landfill design capacity and lifespan will be determined by the areas serviced, while making allowance for the future growth of these areas. In recent years, there have been increasing reports of issues at landfills, ranging from nuisance

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issues and environmental impacts, to human health being adversely affected due to landfills being located too close to populated areas.

During planning, rigorous processes are undertaken to identify exogenous factors that may influence landfill location and lifespan; however, these are often driven by social factors that are difficult to predict. The result is that the rate at which the social structure changes may not have been considered during landfill planning, and may only become relevant years

later. It is, therefore, important to ensure that landfills are designed and operated in a responsible and sustainable manner – with an eye on future population growth trends.

Regular monitoring Aspects that enhance sustainable landfill operation include regular environmental monitoring for leachate and landfill gases and odours in accordance with strict standards, as well as continuously updating stakeholders on the landfill’s performance and plans; it is vital to

James Lake is a partner and principal environmental geochemistry scientist in SRK Consulting’s Johannesburg office. With over 20 years of experience in the environmental field, Lake specialises in geochemistry, closure planning and liability estimating.

conduct regular health and safety inspections, and ground stability and integrity checks. It is also important to ensure that only waste compatible with the landfill classification is accepted for disposal.

It is necessary to anticipate the closure and rehabilitation of the landfill during the planning and design phases; a predetermined post-landfill land-use can generally be determined when a landfill is designed, facilitating a closure model suited for the intended post-closure land-use and allowing the facility to

Wouter Jordaan is a partner and principal environmental scientist in SRK Consulting’s Durban office, and specialises in environmental due diligence, reviews and audits. He also develops new business in East Africa and the DRC.

industry insight

Kirsten King is a principal environmental scientist in the SRK Durban office, and has been involved in the environmental sciences for the past 22 years – focusing mainly on environmental assessment, management, monitoring and auditing. be operated with this intended use in mind. By implementing measures during operations that help achieve final land-use, the rehabilitation efforts necessary at the end of life can be reduced. This limits any potential negative legacies left behind by improperly closed landfills, and achieves the planned post-closure land-use more rapidly.

Finally, operational implementation of measures towards closure – combined with the implementation of final closure measures – limits the potential for latent risks and liabilities to arise later. These might require the stabilising of waste to limit future settlement, or the isolation of waste from humans and environmental receptors – including water resources. This needs to take cognisance of reasonable future land-use scenarios, particularly the increased demand on groundwater resources that may have previously been considered of insufficient quality. This often requires the adequate compaction of the waste body and the construction of appropriate barriers over the waste material. Ongoing, regular and appropriate monitoring is then required to detect possible risks or impacts before these become significant.

Sustainable land-use There are several innovative examples of landfills being transformed into sustainable post-landfill uses, and SRK has been involved with municipalities in a number of these. A

“SRK has established itself as one of the leaders in the full life cycle of waste management and landfill design over the years, serving industry and various levels of government.”

Rob Gardiner is a partner and principal environmental scientist at SRK Port Elizabeth, and has been involved in environmental consulting for over 24 years. His specialisations in this field include impact assessments, monitoring, auditing and due diligence.

crucial ingredient to success is adequate waste management planning, which ensures that landfills can be closed without having to attend to other issues related to poor waste management practices.

In one project, SRK compiled an Integrated Waste Management Plan (IWMP) for uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, and then managed the implementation of the plan in each of the seven local municipalities over a period of three years. The implementation process comprised various elements, from the creation of a waste information system and waste minimisation pilot projects for industry, to waste recycling projects. Work included database design, capacity-building, awareness training, landfill training for operators, landfill auditing and landfill closure. There was also the need to rehabilitate waste disposal facilities, as well as identify and develop new ones. To guide the process towards obtaining compliance for waste facilities within the district municipality, a steering committee made up of key stakeholders was formed in each local municipality.

In one of these local municipalities – uMshwathi – three historical domestic landfill sites required closure permitting. For two of the sites, SRK undertook the closure design and permitting, and also managed the closure contracts. Based on consultation with the surrounding communities and landowners, one landfill was transformed into a community

sports field, while another was rehabilitated to be returned to its pre-landfill use – sugarcane cultivation – to maximise the land’s potential. The third landfill was converted into a mashie golf course, complete with aesthetically pleasing wetland areas.

The quality of this work was based on SRK’s extensive experience in the assessment of potentially contaminated land, and in facilitating its redevelopment to alternative land-use.

“SRK has established itself as one of the leaders in the full life cycle of waste management and landfill design over the years, serving industry and various levels of government.”

In 2004, SRK compiled the IWMP for the North West and, in 2005, assisted with Gauteng’s Waste Management Policy. In 2011 and 2012, SRK developed the Integrated Hazardous Waste Management Plan for KwaZulu-Natal and, in 2018, compiled the Waste Management Chapter for the Western Cape’s ‘State of the Environment’ report. The company has also undertaken numerous landfill designs and is involved with environmental monitoring – focused on water and air quality – as well as the licensing and auditing of landfills in private developments, local municipalities and on a regional scale.

Richard O’Brien is a principal scientist and environmental geochemist at SRK in Cape Town, with 17 years’ experience in environmental geochemistry. He specialises in the management, assessment and remediation of contaminated land, as well as in industrial waste and mine residue characterisation.

New Hanover landfill – community sports field rehabilitation

Mashie golf course in Wartburg constructed on a rehabilitated landfill

NWP Municipal Landfill

+27 (0)11 441 1111 www.srk.co.za

Lindsay Shand is a principal environmental geologist at SRK’s Cape Town office, and has been involved in environmental consulting for over 17 years.

Her areas of focus include: land contamination and remediation; waste management, minimisation, treatment and control; as well as water quality and risk assessment. aug 2 0 1 8

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s o l i d w a s t e | t e c h n i c a l pa p e r

Understanding your waste streams Changing legislation has brought about change in focus for the testing parameters of waste streams. Often, the most seemingly basic and insignificant test can be the most critical in avoiding disposal problems. By Michele Muller*

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key part of the success of waste management lies in fully understanding the composition of the waste stream.

When the properties of a waste stream are fully understood in terms of physical, chemical and biological characteristics, an appropriate waste treatment and management strategy can be developed. When information is incomplete or incorrect, waste can end up being poorly managed, which then poses a risk to the environment as well as communities that may be exposed to it.

It is very important to understand the waste generation process as well as the life cycle of the waste.

Questions that must be considered include: does the waste generation process vary over time and what are the process variations that can occur? It is critical to get as much information as possible when assessing a waste stream as information that may seem irrelevant to the generator could be vitally important when determining an appropriate management and/or disposal solution.

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Legislation has changed considerably in the last few years and this extends to testing procedures as well as disposal methods that are considered acceptable. One must be sure that the options considered are appropriate with regard to legislation and consider if the planned treatment and/or disposal option are appropriate.

A responsible generator will sometimes have to do more than just the minimum that the relevant regulations dictate, as it is not enough to prevent negative environmental impacts. It might be necessary to understand how a waste stream will behave over time in a landfill and consider any future impacts that could arise, although it may not seem to pose an immediate hazard or impact.

Social issues associated with waste disposal are very much at the forefront of the news at the moment. It is, therefore, crucial that any waste stream assessment is done taking into account all possible risks and not just the basic chemical analysis. Any potential for chemical reactions that could generate

odours or other negative impacts must be fully considered. Waste management contractors need to take responsibility for ensuring all factors have been considered as the impact on communities is now being taken very seriously. This, in turn, is impacting seriously on business.

Legislation When the Environment Conser vation Act (No. 73 of 1989) was promulgated, regulations and best practices were still absent. These only started to be published as best practices (Minimum Requirements) in 1994.

Therefore, before 1994, testing of waste to determine a disposal methodology was a fairly basic

exercise with ver y rudimentar y equipment needed.

Some of the most important tools were a keen sense of smell and sight and the on-site staff were trained to be alert to any physical changes in waste streams. Often, it was not even necessary to do chemical tests to know something had changed. Experience and intuition were important in deciding whether the information given was accurate and reliable. Basic tests such as pH were highly significant and provided information on whether heavy metal present in the waste was likely to be detected or be problematic, and monitoring of the site was the evidence that treatment was effective.

Once the Minimum Requirements came into effect, they helped to give structure to testing and disposal requirements. Although not legislated, except through the then permits and their conditions, it gave the much needed motivation to explain to generators why their waste was classified as hazardous and why it needed to be handled in a certain way. This became the handbook of waste management for determining

Non-biodegradable

10%

Glass is one of the very few products that can be completely recycled again and again.

But most often times, it ends up in landfills and never decomposes

For every product purchased, nearly 10% of the finished product contains packing material which is normally dumped

60% to 70% Nearly 60% to 70% of waste found in dustbins can be recycled and reused and close to 50% of the same waste can be composted.

disposal methodologies and it was heavily relied upon.

In 2008, the National Environmental Management Waste Act (No. 59 of 2008; NEMWA) was promulgated. Subsequent to this, the GN R634 waste classification and management regulations and GN R635 National Norms and Standards for the assessment of waste for landfill disposal followed. This was long awaited and much needed legislation for waste management.

Legislation requires testing of a sample in terms of GN R635 for a list of specified inorganic and organic elements and compounds. This is then used to determine a liner requirement for the disposal site where the waste will be disposed of. It is also required that the waste must be classified in terms of SANS 10234 (GHS); however, unless the waste falls into a category of prohibited waste (explosive, reactive, etc.) the waste is disposed of without further restrictions.

What was always a difficulty with waste classifications systems was that they were designed for pure

700 years Plastic only starts to decompose in a landfill after 700 years

products and not mixtures typical of waste streams. Waste is seldom a pure product. It is generally a complex mixture of often unknown proportions, making it difficult to classify and the GHS attempted to address this.

Waste generation The objectives of waste legislation are structured around the steps in the waste management hierarchy, which is the overall approach that informs waste management in South Africa. The waste management hierarchy considers options for waste management during the life cycle of waste, arranged in descending order of priority: waste avoidance and reduction, reuse and recycling, aug 2 0 1 8

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s o l i d w a s t e | t e c h n i c a l pa p e r

It is a waste generator‘s responsibility to dispose of waste in a correct manner with the least impacts

recovery, and treatment and disposal as the last resort (National Waste Management Strategy).

The current Waste Classification and Management System provides a methodology for the classification of waste and provides standards for the assessment of waste for landfill disposal.

To give effect to legislative requirements, the most basic step is to know the components of your waste stream. In this way, it is possible to determine if waste must be disposed, if there is resource value so that disposal can be avoided, and if it cannot be, determine the best option for treatment and/or disposal, without negative environmental consequences. It is important to note that it cannot be assumed that what goes in is what comes out. For example, your process might contain Chrome III, which you consider as low hazard; however, if your process involves exposure to high temperatures, your waste might end up containing Chrome Vl. An example is refractory bricks — seemingly inert and non-hazardous but because of being subjected to high temperatures, often highly hazardous Cr Vl is formed.

As no-one wants to unnecessarily spend money on waste disposal, it tends to be something that is avoided where possible, and generators will do their utmost to pay as little as possible for getting rid of it. A responsible generator will look at their waste from generation to disposal – looking at avoidance where possible and ensuring that if disposal is necessary it is done

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Having a good understanding of what is in your waste is a way of ensuring that this waste could be utilised as a resource wherever possible

properly with minimal impact on the environment and communities.

It is a waste generator‘s responsibility, and not only that of the disposal company selected, to dispose of the waste in a correct manner with the least impacts. In order to be part of the decision, it is essential that the components of the waste are fully characterised and understood.

Having a good understanding of what is in your waste is also a way of ensuring that the waste could be utilised as a resource wherever possible. If one considers the mine dumps that are now being reclaimed as technology has changed to make such extraction of minerals highly lucrative, the same should be considered with our waste streams rather than just dumping them.

Sampling Fundamental to ensuring you have the correct understanding of your waste stream is the correct sampling protocol. Where and when a sample is taken can make a key difference to the results obtained.

It is critical that a representative sample is taken, which means using an experienced sampler or

Where and when a sample is taken can make a fundamental difference to the results obtained

making sure that the sample taken is an average of the waste. Often, generators make the mistake of thinking it is in their best interest to take a best-case sample, hoping that a more lenient disposal method will be proposed and this will save costs.

This is simply not the case. Every load that goes into a landfill site will be tested. If a worst-case sample is taken later, the discrepancies could cause a problem with disposal. This causes delays with disposal and can even result in waste being rejected. There will certainly be additional costs. It is also best to declare all constituents, as omitting one could present a risk to the person handling the waste with consequential liability issues. Often, what the generator perceives as insignificant could very well be the opposite. Wastes that many generators see as ‘inert’, based on a similar process to theirs, are often not. One must take into consideration how the classification was done and for what purpose. There are many definitions of inert and many different ways of testing waste.

Take samples over a few days if it is a continuous process. If you have a batch process, take a number of samples and make a composite.

One grab sample is not necessarily going to give you a true picture. If it is a historical heap, then take from different areas of the waste and also below the surface as the characteristics of the waste exposed to the elements will be altered. It is far better to have an accurate upfront evaluation than get a surprise later

on when the waste is about to be disposed of.

Laboratory testing One of the issues frequently identified is the accuracy and reproducibility of testing laboratories.

Even accredited laboratories with highly sophisticated equipment and highly skilled analysts will produce differing results. Samples sent to three accredited laboratories can give three different sets of results.

Of these, some would comply and others not. Because of this, it is worth sending more than one sample of a waste for analysis or even asking the laboratory to repeat tests to be certain of the outcome. Waste sampling is very challenging because of the variability of samples.

Waste characteristics and potential interactions Many waste generators do not fully understand the implications of the components of their waste. Because a component may not be deemed highly toxic, it does not mean that it will not be a hazard when disposed in a landfill, or may not pose a potential threat to groundwater.

There are many constituents that

s o l i d w a s t e | t e c h n i c a l pa p e r when disposed of in a landfill can potentially create many challenges, in particular under certain conditions. If a waste stream is treated and disposed of, you need to be very sure that the treatment is effective over the long term. Some examples are as follows: • Sulfur Sulfur-containing wastes present the risk under certain conditions of being converted into highly toxic and odorous hydrogen sulfide gas.

Na2S (s) + 2H+ (aq) = 2Na+ (aq) + I—I23 (g) Many waste streams that may be deemed as low risk, such as paper pulp, gypsum or organic waste, have the potential to, under certain conditions such as anaerobic conditions, low pH, high temperature, and high moisture, contribute to the formation of hydrogen sulfide gas, which could potentially be highly problematic.

• Ammonia Ammonia is another compound found naturally occurring from the breakdown of organic material. It has the potential to contribute to

landfill gas odour if nitrogen-containing wastes are disposed of.

Ammonia is no longer even a required testing parameter in the new legislation. Previously, it was classed as hazard rating 1 (extreme hazard) and required testing to very low levels. Now only nitrate testing is required.

• pH High pH has been shown to be beneficial in landfills. Using high pH waste to maintain pH levels above 9 has always been of great benefit. Legislation now prohibits pH above 12. To lower the pH of a waste with a high pH means losing its neutralisation benefit.

The focus should rather be on reactivity and on managing risks.

Maintaining a high pH in the landfill will ensure many heavy metals are complexed and therefore immobilised, lowering the risk of toxic leachate. There are just a few exceptions.

• Salts Salts such as sodium are highly problematic in leachate. The new legislation does not emphasise the

testing for salts, although disposal thereof is not allowed.

Cost implications Very often, a large percentage of the tests conducted are highly unlikely in a waste if one has an understanding of the waste-generating process. Yet there are many tests not prescribed that would be of great value in certain waste streams.

Someone experienced in the waste testing field would do these anyway because they will foresee the risks.

Or even more importantly, questions should be asked to ensure a good understanding of a waste stream.

Someone inexperienced would only do the required list, and that

may not be adequate. Some great risk may be completely overlooked and result in unforeseen disposal problems. There are significant cost implications with the current testing requirements.

In conclusion, I believe it is necessary to understand what the ultimate purpose of testing and legislation is.

Ultimately, it is to prevent harm to the environment – ecology, people, etc. As a waste generator, one is responsible for answering the questions regarding one’s waste. And knowing what is in one‘s waste stream and understanding its behaviour in a landfill and its impact on the environment is the only way to know if one‘s waste management decision is the best disposal option and will prevent environmental impacts. *Michele Muller (BSc Chemistry, Environmental Studies; MSc Water Utilisation) is a waste specialist at Aurecon.

For the unedited paper and reference list, please contact Michele.Muller@ aurecongroup.com.

solid waste

Holistic solutions for modern waste management There is a growing move in South Africa towards the beneficial use of solid waste, as a means of diverting waste from landfills.

A

s these waste management practices of diverting waste from landfills become more prevalent, it is clear that the successful development of these projects is dependent on partnerships with specialist companies that have the skills and capabilities to provide an integrated solution. Project developers are looking for a single supplier of a multitude of engineering skills.

These are supported by experienced and knowledgeable in-house environmental scientists who work within the framework of onerous environmental legal requirements to ensure the smooth implementation of projects.

Richard Emery, an executive associate and specialist in integrated waste management at JG Afrika, says the company’s involvement in a host of complex integrated waste management projects has established it as a leader in this field in South Africa and neighbouring countries.

Projects are best developed when they’re based on a thorough understanding of the characteristics of the waste streams involved.”

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“We have developed extensive capabilities over the years that have become extremely soughtafter, as projects continue to evolve to the point where even traditional landfill engineering skills now also need to be complemented by an integrated engineering unit,” he says.

Expertise in action A recent example of a project along these lines was one JG Afrika worked on alongside RWA, a UKbased specialist waste consultancy, to complete a pilot project that would help six selected South African municipalities adopt strategies geared towards diverting organic waste from their landfill sites, making a noticeable impact on emission reduction.

The project was spearheaded by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) in conjunction with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. Not only does it serve as a sound example of the extent of the capability and depth of understanding the firm brings to project developers and the professional teams working on related projects, but also its approach that starts at the waste source.

Understanding characteristics As Emery points out, “Projects are best developed when they are based on a thorough understanding of the characteristics and consistencies of the waste streams involved, before moving on to ‘best-fit’ solutions. This, alone, highlights the need for expert opinion and solutions from an objective engineering and environmental

consultancy,” he says. It was only once JG Afrika and RWA had a thorough understanding of the characteristics of the various waste streams and their consistencies that they could then commence with the second phase of the DEA project. This involved the selection of the bestsuited scenarios and the drafting of practical and feasible business and implementation plans for the various municipalities.

During the actual implementation cycles, JG Afrika’s extensive engineering and design capabilities meet the onerous requirements of the developers and teams involved in these modern projects.

The company’s offering spans civil and structural engineering and design through to the important transport and traffic expertise that is essential to ensure cost-effective, optimal and safe transport of waste streams to where they will be beneficiated.

In addition, the JG Afrika team features inhouse expertise that includes geotechnical engineers, geohydrologists and wastewater treatment engineers who provide the essential services required to help develop these projects, especially those based upon the increasingly popular anaerobic digester technology that produces biogas for the generation of electricity.

Emery concludes that the company’s impressive portfolio bodes well for the future projects and integrated waste management strategies in the country, and notes that JG Afrika has proved that there is a ready source of technical capability on hand to facilitate their implementation.

solid waste

Solid waste

A

management in Africa

ccording to the report, waste generation in Africa is projected to grow to 244 million tonnes per year by 2025. This will place considerable strain on the continent’s already stretched municipal waste infrastructure.

For Africa to curb its waste generation and promote the reuse, recycling and recovery of waste, the report calls for the continent to invest in the appropriate infrastructure and frameworks as soon as possible.

“Although per-capita waste generation in African cities is among the lowest in the world, demand for waste services is not matched by supply. This is especially true in low-income settlements,” the report points out.

An industry in need of development While the largest part of the budget for solid waste management in developing countries goes

to waste collection, the reality is that the total waste collected in Africa (in 2012) was only 55% of the total waste generated, which amounts to 68 million tonnes, according to the report.

The situation with waste collection and transport services is equally concerning, with appropriate services often only found in city centres. Another area of concern highlighted by the report was dumping. Uncontrolled and controlled dumping are the most common waste disposal practices in Africa.

“The waste in open dumps is left untreated, uncovered and unsegregated, with little to no groundwater protection or leachate recovery.

However, the number of cities shifting from uncontrolled disposal to sanitary landfills is increasing,” the report notes.

There is a lack of knowledge about waste recycling and associated opportunities. In general, the report says that waste recycling

The United Nations Environment Programme and the CSIR recently launched Africa’s first consolidated waste management outlook, with the aim of addressing the impact of mismanaged waste on the continent.

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solid waste is not a priority for most municipalities. “The average municipal solid waste recycling rate in Africa is estimated at only 4%. Recycling is commonly done by waste recycling businesses, supported by a large, and active, informal sector that includes itinerant buyers and waste pickers.”

The state of solid waste management in Africa

Key focus areas and recommendations Some of the reasons the report outlines for poor waste services and infrastructure in Africa include a lack of political willingness and resultant financial capability to invest in waste services and infrastructure, a lack of technically skilled waste practitioners in both the public and private sectors, and a lack of public awareness of the threats and opportunities of waste, among other things.

Although per-capita waste generation in African cities is among the lowest in the world, demand for waste services is not matched by supply. The total municipal solid waste generated in Africa (in 2012) was estimated to be 125 million tonnes per year, of which 81 million tonnes (65%) was from sub-Saharan Africa.

The total waste collected in Africa (in 2012) was only 55% of the total waste generated, which amounts to 68 million tonnes.

The average composition of municipal solid waste in Africa (subSaharan Africa) is about 57% organic, 9% paper/cardboard, 13% plastic, 4% glass, 4% metal and 13% other materials.

The average municipal solid waste recycling rate in Africa is estimated at only 4%. Recycling is commonly done by waste recycling businesses, supported by a large, and active, informal sector that includes itinerant buyers and waste pickers.

To address some of the challenges around solid waste management on the continent, the report notes that particular attention should be paid to accumulating comprehensive, better-quality data on the amount, sources, types and composition of wastes generated in Africa, which should be shared among member countries.

“This information should be freely available and used for, among others things, benchmarking, planning, monitoring and evaluation, and research purposes.” Furthermore, the public should be educated on the health and environmental impacts of poor waste management via all available media.

The report also recommends that waste management policies with strict law enforcement should be introduced and local governments should put favourable policies and incentives in place for the promotion of waste minimisation through the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and the promotion of separation-at-source initiatives.

Furthermore, private sector investment in waste facilities and infrastructure should be encouraged by creating an enabling environment through such means as favourable regulations and policies, strong institutions and waste governance.

The Africa Waste Management Outlook will be available as a free download on the websites of UNEP and the CSIR: https://www.csir.co.za/ documents/africa-wmo-reportpdf.

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landfills

Life after death for landfills

E

ffective landfill remediation poses a challenge for both public and private entities. Navigating the regulatory process, coordinating the different phases of the project, and establishing a long-term plan for post-closure reuse are only the beginning.

Landfills are usually designed with a specific lifespan in mind, which is often determined by the volume of waste they can handle. Once they have reached the end of their lifespan, and have been filled to capacity, they must be closed and decommissioned, as stipulated in the Waste Management Licence.

Nicolas Vanhecke, practice lead: Remediation Services, and Soleil Jones, environmental scientist, at AECOM Africa, an integrated infrastructure delivery firm, note that landfills may need to be closed for a number of other reasons. There may be unacceptable environmental impacts such as groundwater pollution, and/or unmanageable air pollution such as dust or odours.

In many instances, improving management and operations would be a necessary first step, but if this process is unsuccessful, closure is necessary. “There may also be an issue with the geological conditions – for example, if the landfill is

Soleil Jones, environmental scientist, AECOM

Nicolas Vanhecke, practice lead: Remediation Services, AECOM located on dolomitic ground conditions, and is not being managed so as to prevent water ingress, there is a risk of sinkholes forming,” Jones and Vanhecke explain.

The closure process The process of landfill closure and remediation is legislated by the National Environmental Management Waste Act (NEMWA), the Water Act and the Waste Management Series, as promulgated by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (now the Department of Water and Sanitation).

This process entails capping and decommissioning, and includes a number of different factors.

While it might seem that the process of closure only begins once the landfill has reached the end of its useful life, there are factors that can be maintained and attended to while the site is still operational.

Jones & Vanhecke highlight that the controlled, planned, and systematic filling of landfill cells should be carried out with progressive closure and rehabilitation as cells gradually fill up throughout the life of the landfill.

“The slopes of the waste body must be resolved to ensure they lie at a safe angle, which should be maintained throughout

Landfill site problems are often bigger than the eyesore created by the huge piles of waste. At one point or another, landfill sites will have to be closed.

While this may seem like the end of the story, it is only the beginning of the next chapter in the life of the landfill. By Liesl Frankson the operational phase, after which capping is carried out by means of an engineered liner,” they say. Furthermore, Jones notes that all stormwater run-off must be diverted away from the waste body to separate clean and dirty water circuits, and to prevent leachate soaking into the waste body, and subsequent groundwater pollution and odours.

Considering environmental impacts “Once the waste body is capped, it must be revegetated to prevent dust from impacting the air quality in the wider area,” Jones adds. “The site must also be fully secured, and access-controlled, to prevent trespassers entering the site. For example, there could be an issue with people re-mining the waste body for recyclables, which presents a fire risk, as well as allowing rainwater to enter the waste body, which causes groundwater contamination and odours.” Jones says that, in the past, little to no consideration was given to the potential environmental impacts of landfills aug 2 0 1 8

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landfills The decommissioned Alton, Richards Bay landfill in use as a waste transfer station

Landfill closure involves capping and decommissioning

5 tips for managing risks around landfills • Invest in proper access control, training and health and safety provisions for staff and the public.

• To manage pollution, ensure sufficient stormwater berms, channels, contaminated run-off collection systems and leachate management systems are available for the construction, operation, decommissioning and post-closure phases of the landfill.

• Implement proper waste classification and control during the operational phase to reduce disposal of unsuitable or prohibited waste types that present a risk to groundwater quality.

• Manage the acceptance and disposal of waste in a planned and systematic manner. Do not be haphazard in the landfill operations.

• Maintain the buffer zone around the landfill – i.e. do not allow development or encroachment on these areas – otherwise there could be liability risks down the line, not to mention impacts to human health.

on human health and the larger environment, which is why today’s landfills are licenced, and with very specific engineering design. “Even with closures, environmental assessments need to be conducted, which often include monitoring for a specified time at a specific frequency.”

The remediation process The remediation process is dependent on a number of factors, including the type and classification of the waste, as well as the size of the landfill. Most of the time, the remediation process consists of waste re-profiling; capping, usually with topsoil such as clay or with a geotextile; revegetating, usually with indigenous grass; and finally closing. Vanhecke notes that,

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landfills

Landfills are designed with a set lifespan

once properly remediated, the landfill site could be used for anything from parkland to recreational infrastructure or even grassland, depending on the preference of the landfill owner, the surrounding community, and the regulatory authorities.

Some successful international examples of remediated landfills in urban areas include the London Olympic Stadium (2012), the Milan Universal Expo (2015), and the Confluence neighbourhood of Lyon in France, which is one of the biggest landfill rehabilitation projects in Europe.

“If the site is smaller, site reclamation can be conducted via an excavation-transfer-treatment process,” Vanhecke highlights. A key element in site reclamation is the transformation of

anaerobic to aerobic conditions in the landfilled waste. Depending on the waste accumulated in the landfill, a methane gas plant can be installed to recuperate methane for energy purposes.

Post-closure monitoring Following closure and remediation, the landfill site is subject to a post-closure monitoring period, which is recommended for up to 30 years, according to Vanhecke. This is in order to monitor the integrity of the capping, and the impact of the quality of the groundwater quality in and around the waste body. “There may also be a need for ongoing pumping and treatment of the leachate that gathers in the leachate collection system.

The landfill will also most likely require a methane management system, whether that be done by landfill gas harvesting, or regular flaring, so as to prevent methane build-up, fire risk, and air pollution,” Jones adds.

Adherence to legislation is key, and therefore a preliminary closure plan and end-use options for the landfill should be outlined from the outset of the project, and addressed ideally in the Environmental Impact Assessment phase.

“Financial provision must be made for these engineering works and materials, and a more detailed rehabilitation and closure plan must then be developed once the landfill operations commence,” Vanhecke concludes.

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Green Waste recycling

Extracting value from

biomass waste

The South African government has launched a multimillion-rand biorefinery facility in Durban, which is set to address the issue of biomass waste in the country through technology.

By Liesl Frankson

B

iorefinery in South Africa’s pulp and paper industry is practised on a very limited scale. Wood, pulp and paper waste ends up in landfill sites or is burnt, stockpiled or even pumped out to sea. The potential to extract value from it is not realised, which means lost opportunities for the country’s economy.

Through the Biorefinery Industry Development Facility (BIDF), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the CSIR hope to change this. Professor Bruce Sithole, chief scientist: Biorefinery Industry Development Facility, CSIR, notes that South Africa’s pulp and paper mills currently use less than half of a tree in their production processes. The CSIR, in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is pioneering a new technique aimed at using the tree to its maximum potential – up to 90%.

“The reality is that the majority of a tree is lost as waste because only about 47% of it is utilised in the production of forestry-based products. Furthermore, since 2008, the forest products industry has been on a steep decline due to a number of factors, which include the onset of electronic media and competition from other countries.

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“Biorefinery technologies such as the ones we are championing aim to help revive this declining industry by extracting valuable chemicals and materials from the waste,” Sithole explains.

The facility develops and is fully equipped with technology that converts organic biomass waste into high-value products. The BIDF is also able to take laboratory data and findings and upscale them to demonstrate industrial applications.

From waste to worth Sithole says the BIDF will suppor t innovation in a range of industries, including forestr y, agro-processing and other biomass-based industries.

“Let’s look at saw mills as an example. They generate a large amount of saw dust waste.

Some of it is used for energy production by saw mills, but there is so much of it that the excess is piled on saw mill sites,” Sithole explains.

“This waste can be beneficiated by extraction of sugars or oils in the saw dust that can subsequently be conver ted into high-value materials such as xylitol, a low-calorie sweetener, or (from oils) cleaning agents and bioplastics. These are high-value materials that

The BIDF is home to some of the country’s finest chemists and engineers, involved in technology development

are currently impor ted. So, we are saying: why can’t we localise production of these materials by using waste biomass?” he continues.

This example is something the facility is currently involved with and since the BIDF’s launch the team has been working to develop technologies for the extraction of hemicellulose sugars from saw dust for the subsequent conversion into xylitol.

“From the fibres reaming after the extraction, we have developed a low-cost technology for preparation of cellulose nanocr ystals.

Cellulose nanocr ystals are fantastic materials that exhibit tensile strength stronger than that of stainless steel. Hence there is potential to use them to manufacture high-per formance composites. We will soon be upscaling our technology and this will place the countr y among the top 10 world producers of this material,” Sithole points out.

Green Waste Recycling Science and technology in waste management With South Africa fast running out of landfill airspace, Sithole believes that science and technology will have a greater role to play in helping to minimise the waste being generated and supporting South African industry.

“With impending legislation to ban landfilling, we must ask what will industry do with the waste? Science and technology will help ensure that the waste will be regarded as a valuable resource for extraction or conversion into high-value products and materials – thereby minimising the amount of waste generated and assuring maximum utilisation of our valuable natural resources,” he highlights.

Sithole notes that a facility like this is important to the South African waste sector and the country as a whole because it is meant to lower the barriers, which include specialised equipment costs, knowledge, exper tise, research and development skills, scale of investment, human capital, for existing and new role players to develop and implement biorefinery technologies that will improve industry competitiveness and growth in the biomass sector.

“The technologies developed will enable extraction of maximum value from our valuable natural resources. This, in turn, will result in the creation of new value chains with concomitant job creation opportunities. Many of the technologies are suitable for uptake by SMMEs,” he explains.

Servicing multiple sectors While the BIDF’s initial focus is the forestry sector, which is under financial strain globally, it has the potential to be of service to other sectors, for example, exploring the use of chicken feathers in high-value products.

Small quantities of waste chicken feathers are processed into feed for livestock, but the majority of the waste is traditionally disposed of by burning or landfilling. However, the BIDF is demonstrating that keratin can be successfully extracted from the poultry by-product to be used in high-value applications, such as

The facility offers specialised chemical fractionation equipment, advanced analytical facilities and pilot facilities for upscale demonstrations of new and existing technologies and products applicable to South African biomass sources

Biorefinery integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce energy, composites materials, and high-value chemicals in addition to the traditional biomass product streams such as food, wood, paper and pulp

nanostructured materials for biomedical applications. “The equipment and technologies at the BIDF can process any biomass. Thus the facility is now recognised as a national facility for biorefineries and can process forestry, agro, abattoir and fishery biomass.

“The BIDF is accessible to large industry and SMMEs for their research and development, analytical and pilot-scale testing, evaluation, processing and development of technologies for processing biomass. Some of the equipment at the BIDF is unique in South Africa. The facility is home to highly skilled chemists, engineers and

biologists who are well versed in technologies for the beneficiation and valorisation of biomass,” Sithole explains.

Looking ahead, Sithole says he hopes to prioritise the extraction of hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds from wood biomass waste in the short term. In the medium term, the goal is to upscale technology for the production for cellulose nanocrystals to industrial levels.

Looking even fur ther ahead, Sithole hopes to develop new value chains from waste chicken feathers such as textiles for clothing or lightweight composites.

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Sustainability

Creating a cleaner world On 15 September 2018, 5% of the earth’s population will mobilise to pick up trash for World Cleanup Day. The event starts in New Zealand when the sun rises and moves around the globe with the time zones until it sets, ending in Hawaii 36 hours later.

T

he event is set to be the biggest global clean-up the world has ever witnessed, with 150 countries committed to the Let’s Do It! campaign. Of the 150 countries participating, 60 are from the African continent, with South Africa proudly being one of them. It is estimated that, each year, 8 million tonnes of litter end up in the environment, causing a serious threat to people, wildlife, soil, water and air. World Cleanup Day is a call to action for the public, decision-makers and all citizens alike, to take real action in solving the waste problem.

Inspiring change In support of the event, Plastics | SA, the umbrella organisation representing the South African Plastics Industry, is partnering with Let’s Do It! Africa to provide resources towards the clean-up.

For the past 22 years, Plastics | SA has been partnering with Ocean Conservancy by coordinating South Africa’s involvement in the annual International Coastal Cleanup Day – every third Saturday in September when thousands of volunteers are encouraged to help collect and remove litter from the country’s waterways as part of Cleanup & Recycle SA week. This year, it will take place from 10 to 15 September 2018, culminating in the first World Cleanup Day. “This is the biggest positive civic action the world has seen, and we are fortunate to be part of this global movement that hopes to inspire change in human behaviour,” says Douw Steyn, sustainability director of Plastics | SA.

Taking responsibility Plastics | SA is one of the first signatories of the Marine Debris Declaration, whereby 74 plastics associations from around the world have committed to fighting marine litter, Plastics | SA actively supports projects in six key areas aimed at contributing to sustainable solutions, namely education, research, public policy, sharing best practices, plastics recycling/recovery, and plastic pellet containment.

“We have managed to get the plastics industry packaging streams and retailers to support

our efforts and recycling initiatives, such as our beach clean-ups, Operation Clean Sweep, sponsoring litter booms and the Aqua Amazing schools’ education programme. Last year alone, we donated 350 000 yellow refuse bags that were used for clean-ups around the country and assisted coordinators with audited clean-ups,” he says.

Keeping waste out of our waterways Approximately 80% of ocean litter is derived from land-based waste. Without effective waste collection, an avalanche of debris will enter the ocean.

To prevent this, the organisation is encouraging South Africans of all ages, races and backgrounds not only to participate in this year’s Cleanup and Recycle SA week activities and World Cleanup Day, but also to be responsible in their daily activities by ensuring their recyclables are collected for recycling as we all continue working towards a common goal: creating a cleaner world.

sustainability

Teaming up

While marine pollution is a global issue, Africa is increasingly under the spotlight as it is predicted to become the mostlittered continent by 2050, due to a doubling of plastic waste output, taking the place of Asia.

to tackle ocean waste

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hat same year could see the amount of plastic in the oceans outweighing the number of fish, if action is not taken. Current waste management procedures see almost 80% of waste from municipal areas flowing into the oceans via rivers and estuaries, highlighting the need for broad, lasting stop-at-source solutions.

Recognising that urgent action needs to be taken, Norway has partnered with the African Marine Waste Network to solve the challenges facing communities in and around Africa.

A promising partnership The partnership will see a feasibility study conducted in the Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela Bay area over the next six months.

During this period, ideas will be tested and a proof of concept developed, with the view to scale up and roll out long-term initiatives from 2019 to stem the flow of marine debris from Africa and its island states into the oceans.

The feasibility study will involve cutting-edge research to generate much-needed data on the amount of waste in catchments, rivers and estuaries in the Nelson Mandela Bay area, deploying drones and other innovative technology to achieve this.

The impact of clean-ups and the success of waste management strategies will also

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of Nelson Mandela University earlier this year come under the spotlight, with the network’s with representatives from local and internationresearchers exploring methods for monitoring microplastic accumulation in marine al governments, academia, businesses and life, and evaluating techniques to determine members of the public in attendance. the amount of lost and abandoned fishing The Network, which is implemented by the gear off the coasts, a major setback to Kenton-based Sustainable Seas Trust (SST), sustainability initiatives. was launched in 2016 to address The Network will also be testthe issue of marine waste at a ing new models of econompan-African level, and aims to “Dr Ribbink ic enterprises that could facilitate collaboration between incentivise waste reduction people and organisations and his team are and provide financial benacross borders. leading the way efit to local communities.

Trine Skymoen, Nor wegian to saving the Engaging with entrepreAmbassador to South Africa, oceans.” neurs, innovators and existing and Dr Tony Ribbink, director of businesses will be an integral the Network, believe that only by element in efforts going forward. sharing experiences and knowledge will Other key parts of the project include buildwe be able to find sustainable solutions to ing capacity and boosting education and skills global challenges. transfer through the creation of an education “Dr Ribbink and his team are leading the resource book and coordination of an African way to saving the oceans. Norway is proud Waste Academy. This is to be initiated in Nelson to be a sponsor of SST and a partner to Mandela Bay and then rolled out to the rest of the African Marine Waste Network. We sinAfrica through webinars and training courses in cerely hope others will also support their activities,” comments Skymoen. The African different countries.

Marine Waste Network is calling on everyone International Coastal Cleanup Day to team up with it for a mega clean-up on The collaboration between the Scandinavian 15 September 2018, the International Coastal nation and the African Marine Waste Network Clean-up Day driven by the international Ocean was announced at the Ocean Sciences Campus Conservancy movement.

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green buildings

The zero-carbon revolution

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hese plans are part of the cities’ commitment to put in place climate action plans that align with the highest ambition of the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C. The project, working with delivery partner Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA), will run until the end of 2020 but seeks to implement actions that will go beyond 2020, to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the current global building stock will almost double to 415 billion m2 by 2050. This projected growth, combined with the contribution of buildings to around a third of global emissions, provides a strong case for taking bold action to significantly improve energy efficiency in new buildings and lock in emission reductions now rather than spend money on expensive building retrofits in future.

In the case of South Africa, building emissions account for 36% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the four C40 cities and with current urbanisation rates, large-scale new building development will be required to meet the demand

Four of SA’s largest cities – Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Tshwane – are working to make zero-carbon buildings standard practice. The cities, part of the recently launched C40 South Africa Buildings Programme, are working to put in place higher performance requirements for new buildings moving towards net-zero-carbon performance. By Paul Cartwright for housing, commercial and municipal buildings.

Ensuring these new buildings meet high-efficiency energy performance requirements – net-zerocarbon performance where possible – will be crucial if cities and South Africa as a whole are to deliver on their commitments to the Paris Agreement.

Combined with the climate mitigation benefits, there are opportunities to reduce energy costs for building users, make cities more resilient through improved energy security and sustainable job creation, and make buildings healthier places to live, work and use more generally.

What are net-zero-carbon buildings?

The World Green Building Council (WGBC) defines net-zero-carbon buildings as “buildings that are highly energy efficient and fully powered from onand/or off-site renewable energy sources”. This definition includes two key principles. First, the need to prioritise energy efficiency to reduce energy demand and reduce wastage. Second, where the remaining demand cannot be met by efficiency, onand off-site renewable energy supply is used.

The Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) has recently launched a net-zero-carbon rating, in addition to its existing Green Star South Africa rating tools, allowing building owners and developers to demonstrate that their buildings meet net zero performance levels for energy efficiency.

The first net-zero buildings have been certified to this standard. There are developers, contractors and

engineering consultancies in South Africa working on these projects demonstrating that there is growing expertise in delivering these high-performance projects. Over 300 buildings have now been certified in South Africa by the GBCSA with exponential growth in certification demonstrating that the market values higher performance, as well as lower running costs and better returns on investment. In addition, they are demonstrating that while green buildings can be more expensive, they do not have to be. Cities are able to provide the scale that can bring down costs.

How will the cities reach this target?

Delivering net-zero-carbon and/or emissions performance is not an easy undertaking. Even the world’s most advanced cities as concerns low- and zero-emissions buildings, such as Vancouver, have only recently detailed the strategy and accompanying policy and regulatory measures needed to deliver net-zero emissions in buildings by 2030. This knowledge and experience, combined with other examples from cities around the world, can help the cities define, develop and implement their plans for zero-carbon buildings.

South African cities will now develop their pathways to net-zero performance and implement the most effective regulatory approaches and complementary tools for effective implementation.

This will likely require cities to make full use of their municipal powers to mandate higher performance as well as consider tools to further stimulate the

Paul Cartwright, programme manager: New Building Efficiency, C40

market. In parallel, the cities will work to advocate accelerated action at national level on the pathway to a low-emissions future and demonstrate best practice through the development of their own buildings using the highest energy performance standards.

Efficiency is key to the South Africa Buildings Programme, with the need for more stringent building performance requirements through regulation or planning requirements to ensure that buildings are designed and constructed to reduce the demand for heating, ventilation and cooling. Estimates suggest heating and cooling can account for over 40% of building energy demand and, therefore, regulatory requirements that result in the design, construction and operation of buildings to address these are critical. These are likely to include specific measures to improve the performance of buildings that could include insulation measures, improved design detailing and ventilation strategies to reduce heating and cooling demand and wastage.

Although energy efficiency is key, South Africa still relies heavily on fossil fuels to generate its electricity. Therefore, even with significant efficiency advances, on- and off-site renewable energy supply will also be necessary to deliver the emission reductions required.

South Africa has good renewable energy prospects and these will be essential to meet its share of global climate change commitments.

It also means that cities will need to engage effectively to influence the national agenda’s efforts to move to cleaner energy faster and more intensively.

Another important element is the capacity to deliver performance in practice. Certification schemes are an important tool but the scale of compliance required and the step change in regulation will also require a major shift from the construction sector.

Capacity building will be key, from design through to operation, to deliver the performance levels prescribed through regulation and the necessary measurement and verification of performance.

The C40 South Africa Buildings Programme is gaining momentum, led by the cities seeking change, and supported by the many stakeholders who share their vision for a zero carbon future.

FAST FACTS • The energy used to power, heat and operate buildings accounts for more than 36% of the GHG emissions produced by South African cities • More than 70% of South Africans are expected to live in cities by 2030 • Over 300 buildings have been certified in South Africa by the Green Building Council of South Africa • Estimates suggest heating and cooling can account for over 40% of building energy demand

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Specialist Waste Management Consultants • • • • • •

Waste Collection Optimisation Waste Transfer Station design General Waste Landfill design Hazardous Waste Landfill design Landfill Rehabilitation Landfill Auditing and Monitoring

Contact Numbers

Telephone:+27 (0)21 982 6570 Fax:+27 (0)21 981 0868

• • • • • •

Landfill Closure Leachate Treatment Regional Waste Studies PPP Involvement in Waste Management Alternative Technologies for Waste Reduction Integrated Waste Management Plans

Physical Address

60 Bracken Street, Protea Heights South Africa, 7560

www.jpce.co.za

Postal Address

P.O. Box 931, Brackenfell South Africa, 7561

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WASTE - TO - ENE R GY

The Dung Beetle Project

Empowerment

Gadija Daniels welds the frame of the Dung Beetle’s artwork

through innovation

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he UN Environmental Programme says that around 8 Mt of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans each year. That’s the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic being dumped into the ocean every minute.

At the same time, sub-Saharan Africa is facing a wood fuel crisis with massive environmental consequences, as the most dominant energy form for cooking and energy for many communities remains wood.

The Dung Beetle Project aims to address these and other challenges in a fun and innovative way using art, education and technology that has existed for almost 100 years. The solution – a plastic gasification system covered by a steel structure in the form of a dung beetle – uses pyrolysis to heat plastic into a gas and then condense it back into usable fuels.

“The Dung Beetle is really just a package to deliver what is essentially one of many solutions to a planetary crisis we face with the amount

The diesel made from plastic

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of plastics in our environment,” notes Jeffrey Barbee, environmental journalist and director of Alliance Earth.

“The reason we packaged this solution as a dung beetle is because not only are dung beetles rather fabulous, but they do the work that most organisms overlook as probably beneath them. They take waste and turn it into something useful, which is what our Dung Beetle does.

“If you think about it, people have made this system before; what we created here, we literally learned from YouTube – we have not done anything new, this type of technology has been around for at least 100 years. What we’re looking at here is adapting one solution to the plastic problem into a communications platform that is fun, fiery and hopefully unforgettable,” he explains.

Driving climate change and environmental education The project has become a centrepiece for climate change and environmental education, and has garnered much attention since its debut at the AfrikaBurn arts festival in the Karoo earlier this year. The Dung Beetle was mounted on a trailer, along with a stage that allowed for a production that included live performances by artists, as well as talks and tours of the gasification technology.

“We chose to present this project as art because art is communicative in so many ways. When you’re talking about environmental education, it’s really important to engage people at many different levels.

“Through the project, we are driving not only information about how the Dung Beetle works but solutions about things like climate-smart agriculture and agroforestry solutions. We need to continue to adapt to such solutions in the world, which we are changing through pollution and greenhouse gases.”

In an effort to address the problem of plastic waste, deforestation and the continent’s energy crisis in one fell swoop, not-for-profit organisation Alliance Earth has created an incredible engineering solution that converts plastic waste into energy. By Liesl Frankson As the Beetle travels around the country, it uses the syngas it creates to power the lights and speakers for the roadshow. The syngas also fuels two torches that burn and shoot flames 2 m into the air out of the Beetle. The truck towing it is also powered using low-emission biodiesel.

Tackling pollution on all fronts Barbee notes that South African townships are plagued by a pollution problem on multiple levels. “Many people eat lunch at street-side cafes, many of which use just a three-stone wood fire.

Sometimes they even use anthracite coal for cooking food.

“These things already have a heavy footprint problem but when you see the kind of air pollution that you see in South Africa’s townships, particularly in the winter time, with people using whatever forms of energy they can to cook with, it’s a no-brainer that a heat system with no release of hydrocarbons into the environment would be extremely beneficial.

“So, through our system, we are able to turn a local plastic problem into a local cooking solution, by changing plastics into usable fuels that have very little or no ecological footprint beyond cleaning up the plastic in the environment.”

WASTE - TO - ENE R GY

Inventor Pierre Pretorius with the Beetle and artwork

Empowering environmentalism Looking ahead, Barbee notes that Alliance Earth will continue to use the Dung Beetle Project as an educational art platform and there are plans to open a company that will manufacture these systems to empower the local community.

“We would like to see people using this technology much more broadly because our main mission at the Dung Beetle Project is to see plastics removed from the environment in an ecologically safe way. Now, because we’ve had such a reaction worldwide, people want these systems for themselves, and we are looking at starting a separate project to build these systems.”

According to Barbee, the new project will be based in the south of Johannesburg and will retrain people who have been put out of work by the mining industry

to build Dung Beetles. “The aim is to create an alternative energy stream market that essentially monetises these types of systems and puts that energy and money into the hands of smallscale entrepreneurs in Southern Africa. The aim is to have a much larger ecological impact in terms of pulling plastic out of the environment,” he says.

“The reason we are opting to lease and not sell them is so that we ensure that we hold on to the ability to innovate and make these systems cleaner, better, more efficient and more successful at removing plastic from the environment,” Barbee concludes.

ABOVE Pierre Pretorius and Marshal Matsveru make adjustments to the plastic-to-fuels system BELOW The inventor Pierre Pretorius (left) and project director Jeffrey Barbee in front of the Beetle

FAST FACTS • 40% of plastic produced is packaging used just once and then discarded

P h o t o c r e d i t: S t e v e n M o r r o w .

• Less than a fifth of all plastic is recycled globally – Roland Geyer, University Of California • About 8% of the world’s oil production is used to make plastic and power its manufacturing – World Economic Forum • A basic open-source model registered with a creative commons licence will be available once the design for the Dung Beetle has been finalised. Alliance Earth will share it with like-minded organisations, groups and individuals under that license, so that everyone can benefit from this important technology

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waste-to-energy

Towards waste-to-energy

The term waste-to-energy was first used more than 100 years ago in Europe and is a technology that has evolved significantly over the years. Today, waste-to-energy is a highly developed, environmentally clean and energy-efficient way to manage residual waste that cannot be recycled or put to other good use. By Torben Kristiansen*

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he term has slightly different meanings in different countries and industries, and covers both combustion technologies that generate energy from waste, such as waste incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis, and energy produced from biological processes such as biogas and biofuel.

Looking at alternatives to landfilling of waste, there are really only three options: material resource recovery (metal, paper, glass, plastic, etc.), nutrient recovery (compost; nitrogen, phosphorous, sodium), or energy recovery (electricity, steam/heat, fuel/gas), and all of these result in some amount of residual waste that either requires combustion or disposal to landfill.

Waste-to-energy is important as one of the few available, well-tested and proven technologies to stop the current unsustainable landfilling and dumping of practically all waste.

What this means for a country like South Africa is that – if it wishes to seriously reduce the almost exclusive use of dumping and landfilling – policies, incentives and waste tariffs need to change, to allow for a multi-stringed waste

95% Apart from waste avoidance and recycling, waste-to-energy is the only technology that delivers a 95% volume reduction while efficiently producing valuable energy, which results in practically no landfilling

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management system, which may function as follows: •W aste that can be recycled practically is sorted and collected separately.

•W aste that can be used for affordable biogas production and high-quality compost production is sorted and collected separately.

• T he remaining part of the waste stream that cannot be recycled practically or utilised for biogas or compost production is utilised for energy generation.

In such a scenario, it is possible to limit the amount being landfilled from practically 100% to only 2% to 5%, as is already the case today in most Northern European countries.

Deferring costs to the future Whether or not South Africa is open to this kind of technology is a complex question that raises a number of issues. In my view, the current, almost exclusive, use of landfills and dumps in South Africa is unsustainable, unacceptable and is deferring costs and environmental liabilities to future generations. Therefore, this is a political

500 There are more than 500 wellfunctioning waste-to-energy plants worldwide today

question. As long as landfilling is excessively cheap and the cost of landfilling does not reflect, for example, the true cost of infrastructure, land loss, aftercare and perhaps 50 years of leachate and landfill gas management after closure, it will be difficult to switch to advanced waste treatment technologies.

However, even today, there are examples of metros with imminent landfill crises and exploding waste quantities due to urban growth that provide a viable business case for waste-to-energy facilities. The private sector is ready and eager to make the move, as are international suppliers and operators, provided the metros can manage and present reliable, robust and long-term viable procurement policies and a balanced sharing of risks via something like concession agreements or public-private partnerships.

At the moment, it is very risky for private waste management contractors to build merchant waste-to-energy facilities because waste supply contracts between the private sector and municipalities generally run for three years or less.

Without a long-term waste supply, and hence gate

3% to 7% Countries such as Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden are now landfilling only 3% to 7% of waste generated because of waste-to-energy, recycling and other treatment technologies

waste-to-energy

Torben Kristiansen, vice-president: Waste and Contaminated Sites, COWI

fee, securing such merchant facilities is generally not bankable.

If government would like to see merchant facilities in South Africa, I believe it is necessary for municipalities to tender out long-term waste treatment contracts (e.g. 15+ years).

Looking at this process, I believe each municipality must first develop its own specific waste treatment and disposal capacity plans that focus on minimising landfilling. These should then determine the optimum capacity (in terms of affordability and practicality) for material recovery, nutrient recovery, and energy recovery; the waste quality; and the projected development in waste quantities and quality.

Also, in my view, there is no single technology that can replace landfilling. Once it is decided to move up the waste hierarchy, the optimum mix of resource, nutrient and energy recovery must be determined and planned.

Once a particular facility with a particular capacity has been decided on, it is important to truly understand the risks relating to technology, permitting, finance, operations, bureaucracy and legislation before deciding on a procurement policy. In addition, it is critically important to hire experienced advisors; for the first South African plants, such advisors should preferably be able to draw on the experience of international advisors, who have actual hands-on experience with these advanced technologies and complicated procurement processes. The devil is in the detail, and a municipality and its ratepayers will have to live with

the financial consequences of any mistakes that are made for the 15 to 20 years that follow.

There have been too many instances of being ‘penny wise and pound foolish’, which has led to numerous abandoned or unsuccessful projects, particularly in emerging economies.

It is also important to secure long-term, predictable energy off-take agreements, robust operational experiences, reliable cash flows, durable contract conditions, detailed risk identification and risk mitigation, and that a wholelife-cost view is taken with regard to the plant design. As an example, it may be of significant overall financial benefit to invest more today and enjoy 20 years of improved energy revenues. *Torben Kristiansen is the vice-president: Waste and Contaminated Sites at COWI. Torben was involved in the development of the first minimum requirements for waste management back in 1997/98. Also, he was seconded to the Gauteng Deptartment of Environment 2001–2004.

Subsequently, he has been involved in the implementation of the SA waste management strategy (2005–2007) for DEA including providing input to the current Waste Management Act (2008).

Furthermore, he has been involved in initial transaction advisory for the City of Johannesburg (2009) and waste management planning for uMgungundlovu District Municipality (Pietermaritzburg). Also, he has worked in Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland in the region on waste management issues.

More recycling, nutrient recovery and waste-to-energy Some non-governmental organisations and residents are nervous about waste-to-energy technology; however, these fears are generally misguided and based on outdated and now irrelevant experience, or an unrealistic belief that it is possible to make a complete shift from landfilling to 100% recycling. The facts are that waste quantities are exploding, especially in rapidly growing urban centres, and there is a need for more recycling, more nutrient recovery and waste-to-energy at the same time.

European-style waste-to-energy facilities have practically no local environmental impacts, because all noticeable odour and emission impacts can be engineered away. Facilities can be placed where waste is being generated and where energy is needed, whereas landfills cause significant and unacceptable impacts and require excessive waste transport.

Overcoming complexities of planning The planning and development of a waste-toenergy plant is a complex process and there are preliminary requirements and steps that must be taken, negotiations to be completed, and contracts to be signed before a waste-to-energy facility can be built. aug 2 0 1 8

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THESE BRANDS SUPPORT RESPONSIBLE RECYCLING OF USED OIL

Support brands that care for the environment Use ROSE approved collectors and recyclers to dispose of your used oil.

021 448 7492 • usedoil@iafrica.com • www.rosefoundation.org.za

Healthcare Risk waste

Hazardous waste management goes high-tech

Automation is considered the next great feat driving industrial progress and, as more industries begin to reap the benefits associated with the adoption of high-tech solutions, the waste management industry is no different.

How it works

T

he proposed National Health Care Risk Waste Management Regulations stipulate that healthcare institutions have a legal duty to ensure that their hazardous waste is managed responsibly, which entails ensuring that healthcare waste is handled, collected, transported, removed, treated and disposed of in such a manner that it does not pose a risk to human health and the environment.

To monitor for compliance, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) requires that waste generators keep detailed records on the waste management chain.

Automated record-keeping In an effort to move the record-keeping process into the future and promote the responsible management of hazardous waste, specialist waste management provider Averda has introduced a new, innovative hazardous waste management system.

“The mandated duty of care and record-keeping for hazardous waste presents significant difficulty to medical institutions that consign various stages of the disposal process to external service providers,” says Eugene Barnard, head: Healthcare, Averda South Africa.

The Averda TruTrak system, which is a first in South Africa, gives clients access to automated waste-tracking and record-keeping capabilities via an online customer portal.

The system makes use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking tags, which are attached to the containers that hold high-risk waste.

Then scanners on scales, in collection vehicles and at treatment facilities automatically record information including collection and delivery weight, time, date and location details. This data is automatically captured and uploaded to an online client portal.

Clients are given access to the tracking process via the portal, which allows waste transportation to be monitored in real time. This also provides them with access to delivery notes, invoices and disposal reports detailing the nature, quantity and disposal methods for each waste consignment.

These are automatically stored and can be printed off as and when required, in line with a waste generator’s auditing requirements. “The automation of this process eliminates the risk of inaccurate or incomplete reporting as well as enhances transparency and boosts data integrity for record-keeping purposes,” Barnard notes.

error and mismanagement does little for a waste generator’s peace of mind.

However, according to Barnard, the introduction of this system will resolve this concern.

“By providing medical institutions with the means to monitor the disposal of their hazardous waste loads, they can ensure that they comply with their legal responsibility to protect the communities they serve,” Barnard concludes.

Averda will pilot the Averda TruTrak system with key clients, and thereafter, the benefits of the automated track and trace system will be made available to the entire market, ensuring 100% compliance in the disposal of healthcare risk waste.

Protecting communities Healthcare institutions entrust waste management companies to collect and transport waste, subject it to the required treatment processes, dispose of it in a suitably compliant manner and keep accurate records to support their client’s auditing requirements. Failure to act in accordance with the specific regulations attributed to each step in this process exposes waste generators, their directors, managers, agents and employees to significant liability. The lack of oversight in a system that is vulnerable to human

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SWEEPS CLEAN

Introducing the new Roots Regenerative Air Street Sweeper

Together with 600CT, Isuzu Motors SA and Isuzu Truck Centre, Roots has supplied the first four Regenerative Air Sweeper units to the City of Cape Town. They are the first locally produced dual steering chassis units with the Roots bodies mounted by 600CT, with the advantage that parts are easily available.

Regenerative air sweepers employ a high-pressure air blast from a full width sweep head to lift material from the road using air flow, not suction, while the air blast lifts swept material to the hopper o o o o o o

The air blast moves particles (PM10) as well as heavy sand, stones and gravel The air leaves the hopper, passes through a filter into a fan where it is sent back down into the sweep head to blast and lift again.

Because all air is re-used in a continuous loop, there is very little fugitive dust blown from the sweeper – lowering PM pollution levels The air flow generated is around 9,5 cubic metres per second, around 4 x the air flow of vacuum sweepers The high air flow allows much larger suction tubes, 350mm, thereby virtually eliminating blockages A regenerative sweeper can sweep on both sides simultaneously delivering a swept width of 3.4 metres

We are situated at 16 Nourse Avenue, Epping Industrial 2, occupying premises of 8160m2, of which 3200m2 is under roof, with a workshop that is fully equipped with the following: Machine shop * Cutting and bending facilities * Test bench area * Hydrualic repair section * Manfacturing section (containers, tankers, truck bodies etc) * Wash bay * Spray booth

Representing the following products

ENQUIRIES: Contact Adrian Conradie TEL: +27 (0) 21 534 0888 Website: www600ct.co.za

Cape Town is a world tourist destination hosting major events and a clean image is part of visitor experience. Rapid clean-up and mobility to tackle a variety of venues has been taken care of through the City Council of Cape Town acquisition of four new Isuzu model FSR 800 Regenerative Air Street Sweepers Sweeping at 7 to 8kph, with both side brooms operating, depending on road conditions and surface debris, this unit delivers a potentially-massive swept area of 27,000 square metres per hour with an air flow of 9,5 cubic metres per second.

Dual-control to match all road conditions Cab modifications were carried out at KANU Commercial in Port Elizabeth. The 13,5 ton Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) Isuzu FSR 800 wheelbase was altered to provide an ideal mass distribution of the sweeper equipment with a fully loaded hopper.

The Isuzu FSR 800 is equipped with an Allison 2500 full torque convertor 6-speed automatic transmission. The gear ratios are matched to the Isuzu engine torque output and kerb-crawling during sweeping operations.

High abrasion levels & load indicator Cape Town has high-levels of sharp sand, and abrasion will be at its worst – the suction fan and suction tubes are made from abrasion resistant steel while the sweeper body, hopper and doors are made from 304 grade stainless steel also known as 18/8 for its composition of 18% chromium and 8% nickel. The degree of abrasion resistance is directly related to the material swept.

Sweeping paper has no mass but sweeping wet sand and stone is a very heavy task. As the sweeper delivers its payload into the hopper, swept material is thrown forward to make maximum use of the chassis mass distribution.

The sweeper is fitted with a load indicator warning the driver when the max legal load limit is reached.

The sweeper hopper discharges the swept load by a hydraulically-powered tipping cycle.

The rapid discharge enables the unit to swiftly get back to work and translates into high productivity in terms of m3.hrs (cubic metre hours)

Sweeper equipped with independent power The Roots Sweeper is independently powered by a 4cylinder, 4,5 litre Cummins QSB4.5 engine, specifically designed for industrial applications. This engine has a safety shut-down triggered by high-temperature and/or low oil pressure Servicing this productive, hard-working machine will be done on an operating time basis – 250 hours. The expected life of the machine with proper maintenance and operation is forecast at least 10 years.

The Isuzu Roots Blower Street Sweeper is clearly equal to the environmental and efficiency challenges of modern municipal demands – the City of Cape Town has stepped into the future of a smarter image with an environmental impact that cares for its citizens and tourists.

fleet & Equipment

Carrying the load

a level of sophistication usually associated with considerably more expensive top-tier machines.

for municipalities

Lower emissions

There’s a new backhoe loader at the front of the queue on the government’s national tender process and it ticks all the boxes.

M

ST backhoe loaders have been recognised as the most suitable machines for demanding work at all levels of government, including municipalities.

Having ticked all the boxes for suitability, durability, pricing and local support, the MST backhoe loader is now establishing itself as the de facto machine across all tiers of government.

One of the reasons for its popularity is its value offering in the 8 t and above machine range.

It also offers plug-and-play hydraulics for accessories such as hammers, multipurpose

buckets, augers and more, as well as a full array of easy-to-use features – including a fully automatic transmission.

Strong machine “It is big and powerful enough to be used on road projects, trenches, land-clearing operations, excavations, cleaning operations and almost any other type of work that our government departments and municipalities may need,” explains Desmond van Heerden of ELB Equipment.

Simultaneously, it is simple enough to be serviced and maintained internally if need be and offers

The backhoe loader’s Tier III-rated engine is similar to more expensive premium quality machines. Being light on fuel, the loader offers emissions far lower than accepted standards locally for construction equipment. It is also less sensitive on fuel quality requirements than complex common rail engine alternatives.

Its power, combined with easy-to-operate features and a safe, modern cab contribute to improved efficiency, while its air-conditioned, comfortable interior makes it a firm favourite among operators. This is further enhanced through ELB Equipment’s investment in operator familiarisation training and assistance to get the best out of its machines.

The company further invests in the training of technicians as well as entrenching health and safety best practices in government workshops as part of its commitment to ensuring sustainable practices.

Being aware of the economic realities faced by smaller municipalities, ELB Equipment has entered into refurbishment and rebuilding programmes with some of these municipalities to give their equipment second, third and even fourth lives to ensure residents receive uninterrupted service.

7th Annual

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES CONFERENCE

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-COMpLIANCE, ENFORCEMENT & pROSECuTION Date: 28 & 29 August 2018

Venue: Burgers Park Hotel, Pretoria DAY 1 - REGULATORY UPDATE

Petrus Venter Deputy Regional Director: North West DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION

• • • • •

Nozi Mabafokeng Nkoe Chief Director: Environmental Quality & Protection FREE STATE DEPARTMENT: ECONOMIC, SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS

Godfrey Muneri Deputy Director Green Economy DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS

KEY STRATEGIES TO BE DISCUSSED:

The use and impact of criminal sanctions for environmental law transgressions Reducing the risk of litigation through complying with key pieces of Environmental Laws Looking at the impact of illegal dumping of hazardous and medical waste Implementing resource efficiency and clean production to ensure compliance Mitigating environmental risk with ISO 14001

SPECIAL OFFER Register 5 delegates and receive the 6th delegate FREE

EXHIBIT | SPONSOR | PARTNER The 7h Annual Environmental Crimes Conference provides a platform for your organisation to showcase its related services and solutions in a non-pressured and interactive environment. If you would like to receive information on the sponsorship/exhibition opportunities contact: yashik@intelligencetransferc.co.za

For more information contact Mbali on +27 (0) 11 326 2501 or email bookings@intelligencetransferc.co.za

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WasteCon 2018 Approximately 400 delegates and 200 exhibitors are expected to attend WasteCon 2018

7.14% 17.14% 56.98% 13.57% 13.57%

Attendee breakdown:

76

from the municipal sector

from government

from private companies

from academia

from non-profit organisation

speakers will be presenting across seven sessions, on a range of topics that include: • Waste hierarchy • Sustainable waste management • Beneficiation • Landfill transformation

• Solid waste management and recycling • Informal waste sector • Organic waste • Enterprise development

Why should you attend?

To network with other Waste Warriors

Obtain new ideas

For the realisation of social responsibility

WasteCon 2018 will be a green event! What does that mean?

All printed material will be kept to an absolute minimum for WasteCon

Instead of using plastic, each delegate will receive their own glass water bottle that they can refill at designated water stations around the venue

The IWMSA will not be supplying conference bags but rather encouraging each person to bring their own bag

To bring the recycling message closer to home, the organisers will set up recycling stations around the venue and measure the contents collected. During the closing session, they will announce the exact amount that was recycled

events

2018 Events BOOK YOUR STAND NOW

WasteCon 2018 Venue Emperors Palace, Ekurhuleni Date 16 – 18 October 2018 Contact Ann Oosthuizen at ann@iwmsa.co.za The countdown to the next WasteCon event has begun. Every alternate year, the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa hosts the biggest waste management conference on the local industry calendar.

With the last event in 2016 having been notable for the high quality of its technical papers and knowledgeable speakers from the local and international waste management industry, this year’s event promises the same high levels of input and engagement that have become a trademark of the event.

Going Green Conference

Environmental Crimes Conference

Venue Tshwane House Date 29 – 30 August 2018 Contact info@greenbdg.co.za

Venue Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg Date 28 – 29 August 2018 Contact Odette Lewis at odette@intelligencetransferc.co.za

Leading sustainability experts will gather in Tshwane later this year to discuss costeffective, integrated solutions towards achieving smart, green African cities at the 6th Going Green Conference. The conference is being held under the theme ‘Ke Nako – It’s time’ and aims to connect ideas, connect people, and stimulate the creation of sustainable builtenvironment solutions for South African cities.

The Seventh Annual Environmental Crimes Conference, taking place at Gallagher Convention Centre on 28 and 29 September this year, will focus on key issues of compliance, enforcement and prosecution.

As part of the conference for this year, the organisers will be hosting Green Cafe dialogues in Tshwane, Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Green Cafe is a knowledge-exchange platform where people from diverse industries, professions and backgrounds discuss green initiatives and how to best implement them within the city environment.

These issues require greater attention so that implementing authorities and legal mechanisms

can be put in place for better national environmental protection.

Key strategies to be discussed include: transitioning into a green economy to respond to current and future critical development challenges; looking at the impact of illegal dumping of hazardous and medical waste; and implementing resource efficiency to ensure compliance, among other things.

Clean-up and Recycle SA Week 2018 Venue Everywhere Date 10 – 15 September 2018

SAEEC Conference Venue Emperors Palace, Ekurhuleni Date 13 – 14 November 2018 The Southern African Energy Efficiency Confederation’s (SAEEC’s) 13th Southern African Energy Efficiency Confederation Conference is an important energy event of national scope for end-users and energy professionals in all areas of the energy field.

It is the one truly comprehensive forum where visitors can fully assess the big picture – and see exactly how all the economic and market forces, new technologies, regulatory developments and industry trends merge to shape the critical decisions on an organisation’s energy and economic future.

The 2018 SAEEC Conference features a convention agenda with seminars and exhibitions on a variety of current topics.

Clean-up and Recycle SA Week will take place this year from 10 to 15 September 2018, with various clean-ups being planned for neighbourhoods, water sources and beaches around the country. One of the highlights of this annual environmental awareness event will be the first World Cleanup Day that will be taking place on Saturday, 15 September 2018.

Clean-up and Recycle SA Week is an annual initiative by the local plastics industry, supported and endorsed by the various packaging streams and retailers.

Each year, close to 120 000 volunteers participate in these clean-up activities that take place along roadsides, rivers, schools, residential and illegal dumping areas. The initiative is supported by provincial governments, local municipalities, environmental organisations, businesses, schools and communities.

Index to Advertisers 11th ICARD | IMWA 2018

21

Envitech Solutions

13

Oilkol

600CT 36

G&W Mineral Resources

20

Plastics | SA

24

Amandus Kahl

Geocyle

Rose Foundation

34

18

Averda South Africa Environmental Crimes Conference

OBC 38

EnviroServ IFC

40

aug 2 0 1 8

|

ReSource

2

OFC, 4

Interwaste 27

SAEEC 15

JG Afrika

17

SRK Consulting

JPCE

29

WasteCon IBC

10