INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS
TURNING DRUMS
T
he SANParks-SWM partnership was facilitated by the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) through the Mpumalanga Industrial Symbiosis Programme (ISP), which promotes the exchange of residual resources of one company. Having attended oppor tunity-creation training cour tesy of the ISP, SWM applied the industrial symbiosis concept to synergise with SANParks and reuse the latter’s fuel drums for another application. SWM provides services in waste management and treatment. The SMME also focuses on providing environmental education awareness and campaigns to local schools and communities. The company has managed to save SANParks 31.08 t of landfill waste, by cleaning and converting its fuel drums into dustbins for waste collection and placing them at different places within the Lillydale community – at schools, parks and government buildings.
Solving the waste problem Previously, SANParks would store the empty fuel drums on-site or have them collected ad hoc by employees for personal use – and subsequently disposed of at landfills. However, the organisation realised that this solution was not aligned with its sustainable environmental plan, which required
into dustbins
To provide a sustainable and environmental solution to the disposal of its metal fuel drums, the South African National Parks (SANParks) Air-wing has partnered with Swikoxeni Waste Management (SWM), a Mpumalanga-based SMME, to help support its environmental management plan.
the drums to be disposed of responsibly and diverted from landfill. What was regarded as trash has now become a solution to waste problems. The dustbins will be located strategically in facilities where there is a shortage or absence of waste collection bins. This will reduce littering. The collected waste from the beneficiaries will be collected, separated and sent for recycling by SWM.
Making a difference To date, 370 drums have been collected and diverted from landfill, having found an application that’s beneficial for the environment and community. The synergy resulted in the creation of two permanent jobs, as skills were needed to manufacture the dustbins. In addition, 499 t of greenhouse gas emissions were reduced through avoiding
virgin raw material usage in manufacturing new dustbins. The environmental impact of SANParks’ initiative is demonstrated through the usage of the drums as dustbins and through the environmental education of the community. This takes place through the nearby schools, one home base centre, one agricultural cooperative, two recycling centres in Bushbuckridge, and a Sabi Kruger cooperative. Through industrial symbiosis, the reuse of a waste stream from one sector found an application in another, which resulted in the diversion of metal drums from landfill and benefitted 20 schools, thus improving waste management activities within the wider community. For more information on this and other NCPC-SA case studies, visit: www.ncpc.co.za.
The synergy presented a reuse solution for a waste stream that requires no reprocessing or natural resources in its remanufacture. As such, the reuse of the fuel drums is a completely sustainable solution
NOVEMBER 2021
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