M AT E R I A L S R E C O V E RY FA C I L I T I E S
Ways to commercialise waste
Materials recover y facilities (MRFs) are integral in shaping today’s and tomorrow’s circular economy, and form par t of an overall waste strategy. However, to function effectively and affordably, a feasibility study must be under taken, since each site is unique, says Richard Emer y, executive associate manager, JG Afrika. By Alastair Currie
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RFs are becoming increasingly common in South Africa, given the pressing need to shift waste streams away from landfills and focus on recycling as a key activity. MRFs come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from large-scale industrial set-ups for bulk inter ventions to smaller-scale operations that make provision for community-based and labour-intensive projects. The latter provide much-needed employment while preser ving the environment, but the caveat is that specialist management and a constant source of saleable waste streams are essential. “Commercial facilities are typically set up to handle tonnages ranging from 1 200 to 1 500 tonnes per month and require multimillionrand investments, given the high level of mechanisation likely required,” explains Emery. “However, there’s plenty of oppor tunity for more grassroot facilities in the 300 to 500 tonne per month range, costing anywhere from R2 to R40 million, where manual sor ting is the central production process and the barrier to entr y is relatively low,” he continues. “This is definitely
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an area where municipalities should focus on implementing workable systems. That could include paying a subsidy to MRF operators.” JG Afrika has extensive experience in designing small and large MRFs. At the top end of the scale, current examples include the design of a privately owned clean packaging plant in Cape Town. This will handle products that include paper, plastics, metals and glass. As Emer y points out, the secret to sur vival in the waste business is waste stream flexibility. Par t of the reason for this is the present commodity price volatility of the international recycled waste industr y. Large global buyers like China have a major influence. Therefore, to remain competitive, MRF owners need to ensure that their facilities make provision for multiple and parallel production lines and commodity price changes now and in the future. In this way, they can shift the focus away from paper to metals, for example, according to buyer demand. Given the right scale, MRFs can present excellent oppor tunities for public-private par tnerships (PPPs), either as standalone operations or in conjunction
with existing and new landfills. However, the oppor tunity needs to be big enough. “JG Afrika provides transactional advisor y ser vices for a wide range of waste management inter ventions,” Emer y explains. A case in point is a new initiative being rolled out by Eden District Municipality. This PPP project entails the establishment of new domestic solid waste and hazardous waste sites. A waste diversion model forms par t of this.
Waste characterisation assessment To facilitate the process at municipal level, JG Afrika has developed a series of Excelbased tools to assist in conducting waste characterisation studies. These are vital for a successful outcome. Based on the type and volume of saleable recyclable materials, such as cardboard and aluminium, municipalities can punch in the numbers and then estimate the size and scope of each MRF in terms of product throughput, which then leads to the calculation of potential sales turnover. “The point to emphasise is that an MRF must operate as a business and be run by specialists with a working understanding of the waste recycling market. So, size isn’t the issue: a small MRF can run as a going concern and then scale up to greater things,” Emer y continues. “To star t with, for example, a model as basic as 1 tonne per day of compost could work. Prospective entrepreneurs need to target the low-hanging fruit. For example, plastic bottles are easy to source and transpor t, while glass is heavy and expensive to ship to a waste buyer.”
Dirty MRFs Clean, source-separated waste is vital as an avoided processing cost at a recycler. Dir ty
