SA’s carbon credits market is driven by secondary prospectors
Joburg’s Robinson Deep landfill now contributes 3 MW to the national grid
big interview
SA is the only African country implementing a carbon tax
Heavy reliance on coal makes SA the 13th highest carbon emitter in the world
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AQUATAN IS THE FIRST IAGI-APPROVED INSTALLATION CONTRACTOR IN AFRICA.
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This innovative technology, for which Aquatan holds the worldwide patent, expands conventional containment barrier boundaries for protecting the environment far into the future.
With the embers of the Institute’s 40-year celebrations dying down, it is time to reflect on what we do and how we do it in order to ensure an effective impact on the waste management industry within Southern Africa in the years to come.
he IWMSA regularly hosts events such as seminars, workshops and our flagship biennial conference, WasteCon, to create opportunities for our members to network, debate all issues of waste management and also to share knowledge and information on new developments and practices within the industry. We complement these events by offering training programmes for accredited as well as IWMSA-recognised training. These programmes are tailor made to suit various requirements. Please visit our website for more details: www.iwmsa.co.za.
Conference attendance
of conferences and seminars is indeed still effective and whether they still serve the needs of its members.
It is important that our members feel at home within the Institute and that the benefits received outweigh the membership fees
Up until now the IWMSA’s approach/methodology has been highly effective. However, it is becoming more and more challenging to attract delegates to our conferences, events and training. Whether this is due to the economic slump currently faced by South Africa or whether the delegates would rather spend their money and time on accredited training, which offers industry credits and for which a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) certificate is issued, is uncertain.
The fact that continuous professional development points are earned at conferences and training only benefits those who are professionally registered. Then again, maybe there are simply too many conferences being hosted by various organisations, including the private sector. The IWMSA will, therefore, have to investigate whether the current format
The Institute will also have to consider whether the training we provide, both the accredited training of NQF 1-4 and the IWMSA-recognised training, is sufficient and focused at the right audiences within the waste sector. We know that the need for education is enormous and the Institute must ensure that it addresses this need effectively.
To that effect, our online training module was developed and is proving to be popular – perhaps we should also consider webinars as further training methods for subjectspecific topics.
The training need is not only limited to South Africa; our neighbouring countries are expressing the same need and the training support that the Institute can provide will be crucial to the sustainability
of our chapters in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and others. In Zambia, where the Zambian Institute of Waste Management has already been founded, similar education and training support could be provided to support and stimulate growth.
Finally, the Institute will have to relook at its membership benefits. It is important that our members feel at home within the Institute and that the benefits received outweigh the membership fees.
In the end, it should not be about the rands and cents, but rather about whether or not waste management professionals can afford not to be a member and forego access to these important benefits. At WasteCon, we spoke about the changing face of waste management and the above comments simply reflect the methodology by which we will ensure that we remain relevant. But it is not about change, it is about serving our members. It is about how the Institute is going to facilitate the needs of its members for the next 40 years to ensure growth within the industry.
Kind regards,
President, IWMSA
Buhle Waste (Pty) Ltd. is a 100% Black-owned and managed waste management service company that has been in the industry since 1997.
We have capabilities and capacity in general, domestic, chemical, hazardous and healthcare risk waste (aka medical waste); we further have capacity and capabilities in hygiene services and cleaning, effectively rendering Buhle Waste a holistic waste management service provider.
Over the years, we have become one of the market leaders in the management of hazardous waste in South Africa. We boast a national footprint with key clients such as the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North-West Departments of Health; South African National Blood Services; National Health Laboratory Services; and many others. Buhle Waste provides a unique service tailored to the needs of each organisation, ensuring they receive
the best service in the management of their waste. We are committed to ensuring. that our clients are our priority;we strive to provide them with an efficient, reliable and costeffective service that is in the best interests of our clients, their staff and their communities.
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All material herein is copyright protected and 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.
ore than 60% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity. According to the International Energy Agency, one billion people will gain access to electricity in Africa by 2040, 950 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
However, population growth in sub-Saharan Africa and progress in other parts of the world mean that the remaining global population without access to electricity has become increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. Although access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa is set to increase to 75% in 2040, this part of the continent will still be below the global target of universal access by 2030. That means half a billion African people are expected to be without access in 2040.
Access to a continuous, reliable supply of electricity is essential for the socio-economic growth of a country. It powers lamps for students to study by, computers for engineers to make their complex calculations, and automated systems that treat our drinking water, to name a few.
In South Africa, we are lucky to have the highest rate of access to electricity in subSaharan Africa, with only 11% of households lacking access. We, therefore, shoulder a responsibility to be leaders on the continent, sharing our knowledge and growing that knowledge base from learning about our neighbours’ best-practice case studies.
Yes, even an 11% supply gap is too high, but much is being done to improve access and keep the wheels of industry turning.
Ensuring that energy-intensive users are maximising their electricity usage is the most effective first step in bridging South Africa’s supply gap. In fact, South Africa is instituting something called the Industrial Energy Efficiency Project with this goal in mind.
The project is the most successful of its kind in the world, creating South African energy management experts whose skills are being exported to other developing countries wanting to improve their industrial energy usage. To find out more about how the programme has diverted 2 million tonnes of CO2 and created 3 300 jobs, go to page 4.
Resource efficiency
ReSource is all about integrated resource management, creating more sustainable public and private sector enterprises across Southern Africa. As the official journal of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa, the magazine delves into topics including sustainable landfills, waste management, recycling and biogas.
Biogas is particularly relevant for this, the ‘Clean Energy’ edition of the magazine, because it combines all of the above disciplines while looking at ways to contribute towards the national grid using renewable energy. Such projects fall under South Africa’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
Read more about how South Africa is implementing CDM on pages 8 to 13.
Finally, I’d like to highlight that this magazine will be distributed at not one but three energy events in February and March: the African Energy Indaba, Power & Electricity World Africa, and the co-located event, The Solar Show. These are not-to-be-missed events looking at the best ways to improve electricity infrastructure in Africa.
Most
of today’s grade-schoolers will be performing jobs we’ve not even heard of yet. Alf Hartzenburg discusses how increased resource competition will impact the job and revenue sources of tomorrow. by frances ringwood
lobal warming, climate change and increased competition for natural resources are likely to make many of the types of jobs occupied by today’s workforce obsolete within the next 15 years. In their place, new opportunities will emerge, driven by the need to implement renewable energy, find power storage solutions and integrate smart technology seamlessly with existing systems.
Alf Hartzenburg, senior project manager for the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA) – who also heads up the centre’s Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) Project – agrees that the workforce is changing. He notes that government’s role in
creating a supportive environment is crucial for South Africa to achieve optimal future economic success.
“Governments should be creating the right fiscal and monitoring policy while exploring fresh financial markets, and business needs to follow these changes to make better decisions and react proactively to changing markets,” says Hartzenburg.
Already, smart technology is making an incredible impact on people’s energy consumption, although these changes are often invisible. For example, smart meters enable utilities to monitor and optimise the energy usage of businesses, housing estates and suburbs. Some parts of the world are
even installing smart street lighting, using sensors to determine how traffic volumes can best be managed to limit CO2 emissions. For the 2012 Olympics, specialised paving was put down on some of London’s high foot traffic areas for the purposes of harvesting kinetic energy for powering public lighting.
“In my view, smart technology, including smart grids, is going to grow exponentially in the coming decade. Another major avenue for new jobs and innovation will be energy storage, not just in the familiar forms of flywheels, batteries and invertors, but using ideas we’re only starting to imagine,” notes Hartzenburg.
The journey in training the new workforce to meet future needs has just started and its expanding focus will include behavioural economics, earth sciences, marketing growing renewable energy technology options, transforming buildings into power plants, installing hyrdrogen and other energy storage technologies, laying out intelligent utility networks, setting up green logisitics and many new needs not yet defined.
As an example, he cites the case where a team of mostly African students teamed up to develop a first-of-its-kind, microbial fuel cell-based lighting systems suitable for subSaharan Africa. South African inventors have also made their names on the global stage through their contributions towards super-thin
photovoltaics and innovations in concentrated solar power technology.
The IEE Project was first established in South Africa in 2010 with the aim of supporting industry to manage its energy better. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), along with the UK Department of International Development and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Energy of South Africa, embarked on a programme to address the global drive for greater energy efficiency.
“To expand on that, the aim was to contribute towards sustainable transformation in industrial energy-usage patterns and practices in South Africa,” says Hartzenburg.
“We hoped to achieve this largely through setting up and implementing energy management systems and ensuring that South African industries benefitted in measurable ways. When we started out, we focused on what we had, at the time, identified as the five most energy-intensive sectors. We quickly found out that limiting ourselves to just five sectors posed unnecessary restrictions on the project and, today, we have no restrictions on sectors wanting to participate. Recently, we’ve expanded our scope beyond industry to look at the commercial sector too,” he adds.
The IEE Project was established essentially to stimulate a demand for energyefficiency services through the formulation and implementation of enabling policy frameworks. “We recognise that we can’t make the necessary changes unless there’s a supportive regulatory environment in place. To this end, we’ve consulted on a number of foundational laws, regulations and policy documents – like the National Energy Efficiency Strategy, for example,” says Hartzenburg.
There are many other programmes and strategies that complement and support the IEE. These include, inter alia: the White Paper on National Energy Policy; the National Climate Change Response Strategy; the
2 million tonnes of CO2 has been mitigated through the IEE Project’s energy savings
National Energy Act (2008); and the Integrated Resource Strategy.
From working with just a few government departments, the NCPC-SA and IEE Project’s scope has grown to incorporate collaboration with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and, at times, the Department of Higher Education and Training.
“We have been working more closely with the DEA, especially the folks concentrating on climate change mitigation and resource reduction programmes. They have identified a good alignment between these programmes and the IEE Project, facilitating areas of mutual growth and support,” says Hartzenburg.
Additionally, he characterises the IEE’s success in creating jobs for South Africans in the energy efficiency and energy management sectors as the cornerstone of the project’s achievements. “When we started out, 90% of our instructors were international and only 10% were South African. Today, 90% are South African and we are even beginning to export these skills to other parts of the world. For example, there are 16 other IEE projects spearheaded by UNIDO in countries like Russia and China. South Africa’s IEE Project has certainly turned out to be a flagship and we are creating professionals who can go into those countries – either as private individuals or as part of larger organisations – and consult on those other projects,” says Hartzenburg.
“A coup for the IEE has been our role in assisting companies to overcome the idea that their energy efficiency protocols are intellectual property. Through our workshops and networking sessions, we’ve facilitated dialogue between same-sector and cross-sector companies, where they learned there was nothing unique about the way they were going about managing, improving and optimising their energy consumption.
“Government is creating the right fiscal and monitoring policy to react proactively to changing markets.”
Alf
Hartzenburg, senior project manager, NCPC-SA
This represents a massive paradigm shift and it is this type of behavioural change that is necessary to make energy efficiency ‘top of mind’ for South African businesses,” says Hartzenburg.
The biggest new development driving future uptake of the IEE’s services will be the introduction of the new Carbon Tax. The NCPCSA has established a protocol for measuring and verifying carbon savings achieved by businesses, a system that will lend carbon credits trading much greater credibility, making the justification of financial rewards more feasible.
62 companies reported actual savings achieved through the implementation of the NCPC-SA’s recommendations
In spite of the many achievements of the IEE to date – including the training of more than 3 300 energy professionals and prevention of 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere – Hartzenburg believes that one of the project’s greatest achievements has been to foster cooperation on energy efficiency among otherwise
R1.76 billion has been saved on companies’ electrical builds through the project
“We at the NCPC foresee that the introduction of energy reporting and energy management plans, as well as new revenue from carbon credits, will add to a growing demand from companies wanting to make use of the IEE’s services. Our end goal will be to develop these partners to the point where they are eventually independent of us and can develop along their own energy-efficiency path,” he concludes.
2 140 GWh have been saved through the NCPCSA’s promotion of energy efficiency
297 000 middle-income homes in South Africa could be powered from the savings achieved by the IEE to date
Thanks to a unique public-private partnership, the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has been able to implement a number of landfill-gas-to-electricity projects in the face of a rapidly changing financial and legislative environment. b y m akhosazane b aker and n ontando l etsoela*
aste disposal to landfill is one of the contributors in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through the generation of methane landfill gas (LFG) during landfill operations. South Africa is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, and the CoJ has set targets for GHG emissions reduction in its Climate Change Strategy. The city’s mechanism for recovering energy from waste at selected landfills will contribute significantly towards the GHG emission reduction strategy of the city. The city identified five of its landfill sites – Robinson Deep, Marie Louise, Linbro Park, Goudkoppies and Ennerdale – to implement the LFG-to-electricity Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project. Through the implementation of a CDM project, the city will contribute to the country’s realisation of the Kyoto Protocol commitments and simultaneously generate revenue through the sale of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) and sale of electricity generated from the project. The project was initiated in 2007, with the main aim of mitigating the harmful GHGs from landfills. Another aim is the generation of renewable energy, which will be fed into the municipal grid, thus largely offsetting coal-derived electricity.
In May 2009, the CoJ entered into a contract with EnerG Systems Joburg to construct and operate the LFG-toelectricity CDM project at no cost to the city for a period of 20 years. It also has exclusive rights to mine gas and generate electricity at the five landfill sites. About 19 megawatts (MW) of electricity will be
generated – comparable with the electricity used by about 12 500 middle-income households. Currently, the gas collected is being flared. This is owing to Eskom’s late signing of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which was finally signed with its Single Buyer Office in August 2015.
This is the first municipal waste management project to participate in the Renewable Independent Power Producers Procurement Program (REIPPPP) of the Department of Energy. Electricity generation started at the end of last year, with the first 3 MW of electricity to be fed into the City Power electricity grid. An average of 1 756 m³/h of landfill gas has been recovered and flared at both Robinson Deep and Marie Louise landfill sites since May 2011 and May 2012, respectively, which would have been emitted to the atmosphere as a harmful GHG. This is expected to increase as more of the wells are installed for gas collection, in preparation for energy generation.
over a period of several decades (usually beginning one to two years after the waste is deposited). Methane makes up about 50% of LFG, with the remaining 50% being carbon dioxide mixed with small quantities of other gases. If landfill methane is not collected, it will escape to the atmosphere through the waste body or migrate laterally through the ground to off-site areas where it can escape. If not properly controlled, LFG may be flammable, toxic and asphyxiating and create explosive conditions in enclosed environments.
About 19 MW of electricity will be generated, comparable to the electricity used by about 12 500 middleincome households
The project has so far accumulated 243 859 certified emission reductions (carbon credits). This project will reduce GHG emissions by 60% to 70% from landfill sites during its operation.
Introduction
In South Africa, landfilling is currently the most viable option for the disposal of South Africa’s solid waste and even though recycling and reuse will help in reducing the amount of waste delivered to landfill, it will continue to provide the least costly option for disposal of waste. Methane from landfills is produced by the decay of organic waste in anaerobic conditions and is generated
The production of landfill methane gas depends on several key characteristics, including the waste composition, landfill design and operating practices, and local climate conditions. For example, the presence of more organic waste (paper, food scraps and grass cuttings) will result in a higher and sustained level of methane production, and high levels of moisture in the waste will accelerate the rate of methane generation.
In addition, if the landfill has used soil for cover and if the site is a sanitary engineered site with liners and capping, the gas capturing process will be enhanced. Filling the landfill, whether by broad filling and raising one level at a time or a cell-bycell construction, will also affect the project and what well-installation and gas-collection methods are chosen.
The project was issued with the required Environmental Impact Assessment waste licences for each site that were necessary
1
In May 2009, the city entered into a contract with EnerG Systems Joburg to construct and operate the LFG-to-electricity CDM projects at the Robinson Deep, Marie Louise, Linbro Park, Goudkoppies and Ennerdale landfills.
2
An average of 1 756 m³/h of landfill gas has been recovered and flared at both the Robinson Deep and Marie Louise landfill sites since May 2011 and May 2012, respectively.
3
Installation of a gas collection system at Robinson Deep with the generator was completed successfully in November 2016. The site generates 3 MW of electricity, fed to City Power electricity grid. That’s enough to power 5 500 medium-income homes.
4
Goudkopies construction of waste collection started in August 2016 and generates 3 MW; site commissioning was in November 2016.
5
Marie Louise construction of waste collection started in July 2016 and will generate 3 MW; site commissioning will be in February 2017.
6
ennerdale and Linbro Park are both expected to generate 1 MW. A total of 7 449 m³/hr of landfill gas has been recovered and flared at both the Robinson Deep and Marie Louise landfill sites since May 2011 and May 2012, respectively, which would have been emitted to the atmosphere as harmful GHGs.
7
this is expected to increase as more of the wells are laid for gas collection, in preparation for energy generation. The project also previously accumulated and sold 243 859 CERs to Nedbank
to begin project activity in June 2010. To date, each of the developed sites has been compliant with the conditions of their licences.
Construction of the Robinson Deep landfill started on 21 February 2011 and was completed in May 2011, where the site was commissioned to commence with gas flaring. A total of 68 gas wells were installed and this number will be increased during the second phase of the project to cover the entire site. Robinson Deep’s daily LFG pumping rate is 1 400 m3/h and this will be increased
over time. The plant can reach an optimum pumping rate of 2 000 m 3/h when it is operated at full capacity.
Construction of the Marie Louise project started in February 2012, where 28 wells were installed and the site was commissioned in May 2012. Marie Louise’s daily pumping of LFG is 500 m3/h, which will be increased when electricity is generated. There have been positive signs of improvement in air quality at the Robinson Deep and Marie Louise sites since the implementation of the project. Few complaints about odour have been received from the surrounding landowners since the commissioning of the two sites.
The CDM registration process of the project with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive board was finalised in November 2012. Ener-G Systems Joburg has already identified buyers for the CERs in the voluntary market, including one buyer in South Africa.
With the a growing focus on reducing, reusing and recycling waste, the option of using waste as an energy source by both municipalities and private waste operators is growing rapidly. This provides a fresh
set of challenges for the waste sector with the incorporation of electricity generation as part of a holistic successful waste management strategy.
Along with the opportunity for the waste sector to reduce GHG emissions, this approach is increasing the complexity of LFG projects as well as waste-to-energy projects.
It is evident from more developed waste sectors like Europe that all of these aspects need to be considered together and need to work in ever-increasing interdependency in order for the industry to adapt to a rapidly changing financial and legislative environment.
*Makhosazane Baker is the director: Waste Management and Regulation in the Environmental Management Department, and Nontando Letsoela is a senior specialist, both at CoJ.
In an ironic twist, South Africa’s carbon tax, while purifying our air, could severely set back the environmental performance of landfills operated by smaller municipalities. Nonetheless, large landfill Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects could benefit from a double whammy of income from carbon credits as well as renewable energy sales. by frances ringwood
this was met with enthusiasm by a diverse range of interested parties in the private sector, mainly based in South Africa,” he adds.
Ekurhuleni didn’t end up selling its carbon credits, “but it did find that South Africans are embracing carbon trading and the transition to a green economy,” explains Cornish.
he question of whether or not landfills and their operators will profit from the proposed carbon tax is an important one for the waste management industry.
Given that municipal landfills are very often last on the list when it comes to municipal budgetary allocations, and are plagued by serious capacity issues, the truth is that taxing the methane and carbon emissions of landfills will likely adversely affect local landfills’ environmental performance.
On the other hand, landfills that implement biogas CDM projects could find themselves becoming better run and better at generating maintenance revenues, not directly due to the carbon tax but rather because of South Africa’s healthy emerging carbon credits prospector market.
A salient issue is the notable difference between large and small municipalities. Says Jason Gifford, head of renewables, WEC Projects, “You need a significantly sized landfill in order to generate enough biogas to offset capital equipment costs. Also, the European carbon credit market is subject to market forces – as a result, selling carbon credits directly into this market isn’t highly profitable at the moment.
“However, in South Africa, there are companies that buy carbon credits with a view to selling them once the market improves. This secondary market provides the robustness required to justify biogas projects’ rands and cents, even making them financially attractive.”
David Cornish, CEO of EnerG-Systems in South Africa, agrees, “Privatesector investors are definitely driving the carbon credits market here in South Africa.
“Private-sector investors are definitely driving the carbon credits market here in South Africa.”
For example, our CDM project, which we’re operating on a build, own and operate (BOO) model for the City of Johannesburg, generates carbon credits. These have been bought by Nedbank predominantly, and then also a Netherlands-based environmental consultancy.
“The City of Ekurhuleni also put out a tender to gauge interest in its landfill CDM projects earlier this year;
The South African iteration of EnerG-Systems is currently involved in the lion’s share of CDM landfill projects. The company’s business model is to reduce the risk of managing landfill facilities for municipalities, while also retaining and selling renewable electricity produced from the gas via a Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) agreement. The net benefit for the municipality is that its carbon footprint is much lower, an impact that contributes towards South Africa’s goal of lowering its carbon emissions as per the Kyoto protocol and, more recently, the COP21 Paris agreement.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction at landfills through biogas started with the Kyoto protocol, with Phase I being implemented up to 2012. South Africa is currently in Phase II. For a while after the original Kyoto protocol, talk about carbon credits trading
stalled, resulting in low market values of only a few US cents per tonne of sequestered CO2. The recent Paris Accord was a triumph in starting to reverse the slump, as it was approved by all 196 participating countries and was officially ratified in October 2016.
“From a global point of view, that’s a massive step forward,” comments Cathy Lee, founder of Lee International Business Development – an international consultancy that has served clients in South Africa, Brazil, the US and Canada.
“The Paris agreement talks about how each participating country needed to put down their 10 nationally determined climate contributions – an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), which came into force on 4 November 2016. The whole point is that these won’t be punitive, but signatories’ commitments are going to be made public. Therefore, the pressure will be on to comply. So, countries now have to transition from the INDC, to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). That is what South Africa must now comply with,” says Lee.
growth reduction is disappointing, but the gains to be made will put South Africa ahead in terms of implementing sustainability best practice. If local entrepreneurs leverage the opportunities presented by South Africa’s carbon tax effectively – by developing appropriate and world-leading technology that contributes towards sustainability – there may yet be a brighter picture.
Important objectives achieved by the carbon tax include its “significant impact on reducing South Africa’s GHG emissions and would lead to an estimated decrease in emissions of 13% to 14.5% by 2025 and 26% to 33% by 2035 compared with business as usual,” the report notes.
This reduction will make a vital contribution towards reaching South Africa’s NDC commitments.
The tax will result in a reduction in the annual average growth rate of the economy of just 0.05 to 0.15 percentage points
As to where waste management currently falls in this picture, the sector plays a key role in the variability of different market scenarios proposed in Treasury’s report.
In T1R3, “tax-free allowances, as laid out in the proposed design of the tax, are gradually removed at a rate of 10% per annum for all sectors (except waste management and agriculture), and revenues are recycled through a rebate to all firms proportional to their output.”
The report also showed there would be “a number of important sectoral winners and losers from the carbon tax” and that, “in 2035, nuclear, wind, hydro, gas and solar photovoltaic power generation sectors are expected to be more than 200% greater than without a carbon tax.”
No mention was made of the positive gains for biogas specifically, but as a similar source for renewable energy, landfill biogas has the potential to be characterised as a “double whammy” in terms of being a winner –generating carbon credits while simultaneously producing clean energy.
Lee explains what market mechanisms were established in Paris:
“The first market mechanism is ‘cap and trade’. This is currently operational in 54 jurisdictions worldwide. Through this mechanism, a limit is set, and jurisdictions over that limit have to pay a penalty. The reality of cap and trade, though, is that it is subject to market forces, so, if you need to buy credits during a shortage, they cost a lot. If there’s a surplus, they cost less – so it’s a little bit on the risky side.
“The other market mechanism recognised is carbon tax. This is currently operational in 39 jurisdictions. South Africa is the ony African country using this mechanism.”
To put South Africa’s emissions into perspective, we’re 13th in the world, with our heavy reliance on coal power, and the highest carbon output in Africa.
The latest document outlining how the carbon tax will be implemented is National Treasury’s “Carbon Tax Modelling Report”.
The report forecasts that the tax will result in a “reduction in the annual average growth rate of the economy of just 0.05 to 0.15 percentage points compared to business as usual”. Obviously, in a depressed economy, any
The modelling analysis considers four different tax designs (T) in combination with five possible recycling schemes (R), with the ‘focus’ scenario being called “T2R1”.
As for costs, “the provision of tax-free emissions thresholds and allowances ranging from 60% to 95% will result in a relatively modest carbon tax rate ranging from R6 to R48 per tonne CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent – this is useful because one tonne of methane does about 21 times the environmental damage as one tonne of CO2) during the first phase of the carbon tax up to the end of 2020.” If the focus scenario is adopted, tax-free allowances for industries will
be removed at a rate of 10% per annum from 2021 onwards.
The above demonstrates that large landfills stand to benefit enormously from the carbon tax but what about smaller landfills? “We have an opportunity, as an industry, to influence National Treasury at this point, specifically about Phase II. The industry needs to get together and do this,” says Lee.
“One of the questions that often arises at this point is: ‘what size landfill is big enough to implement one of these projects?’ I think the metros should be the first to start. The smaller the site, the harder it is to get a critical mass of waste in place to get these credits out,” Lee explains.
On some of these sites, the funding mechanism becomes the real stumbling block. Research conducted by National Treasury has found that smaller municipalities really struggle to input high-quality data into their funding models and, as a result, they tend not to work very well. So far, larger metros such as Ekurhuleni and eThekwini have enjoyed some success with their CDM projects. The City of Johannesburg has also enjoyed considerable success through its public-private partnership with EnerG-Systems.
“The ultimate question is: how do we pay for these CDM projects upfront when the return is
going to be over 20 years? Potential funding mechanisms for how municipalities can install a gas extraction system will need to be looked at,” says Lee.
Reading between the lines, it looks as if assistance from the private sector in the form of innovative public-private partnerships will be the way forward with regard to optimising carbon tax benefits for all municipal landfills.
The carbon tax creates a terrific opportunity for existing and new landfill CDM projects in South Africa. The local market is receptive and South Africa’s status as the only country in Africa to implement the carbon tax provides us with a significant opportunity to develop leading innovative sustainability technologies,
Capital costs for biogas extraction equipment on landfills can take up to 20 years to offset
which can be marketed to other countries to our benefit.
However, waste management has narrow margins and landfills operated by smaller municipalities cannot afford to implement CDM projects. Also, practically, they are just not equipped to do so. For this reason, it would be appropriate for the South African waste management community to push for waste management to be left out of Phase II of the carbon tax implementation process.
Additionally, the private sector will continue to play an increasing role in making biogas CDM projects at landfills profitable. In fact, it may be the only way forward for smaller municipalities.
T1
• Basic allowance of 60%
• Tax rate of R120/tonneCO2eq
• Increase of tax rate by 10%/annum from 2016 to 2020 and by the assumed rate of inflation of 5.5% from 2021 onwards
• Agriculture and waste sector emissions are exempt over the entire period
• Tax-free thresholds constant from 2016 to 2035
T2 The carbon tax is applied as in T1 but:
• Tax-free allowances for industries removed at a rate of 10%/annum from 2021 onwards
T3 The carbon tax is applied as in T1 but:
• Agriculture and waste sector emissions allowances removed at a rate of 10%/annum from 2026
T4 This is a combination of T2 and T3:
• Tax-free allowances are removed at a rate of 10%/annum starting in 2021 for all industries except for agriculture and the waste sector for who allowances are removed at a rate of 10%/ annum from 2026
R1
• Output-based rebate on all production across all sectors
R2
R3
R4
• Decrease in the VAT rate on all goods consumed by households
• Combination of R1 and R2 (split 50:50)
• Output-based rebate on all production across all sectors
• Decrease in the VAT rate on all goods consumed by households
• Subsidising the production of renewable electricity generation: Subsidy for solar PV
R5
Decrease in VAT on four commodities:
• Agricultural goods, food and beverages, transport, and tobacco
By implementing industry-leading technology, two hazardous waste disposal site owners have taken their environmental legacy into their own hands, working for a more sustainable future. by walter meyer*
egulators are moving towards requiring barrier designers to ensure their designs mitigate heat effectively in order to achieve their expected service life.
Even a relatively small temperature increase of 10°C on a composite liner (comprising a membrane and mineral layer) can increase diffusion by 100% and hydraulic conductivity by 80%. These factors can further reduce the performance of geosynthetic drainage systems, necessary for keeping a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) hydrated.
Over the past 50 years, Aquatan – the only Approved Installation Contractor (AIC) in Africa under the International Association
of Geosynthetics Installers (IAGI) – has been developing its product offering to include the industry-leading Enhanced Barrier System (EBS). The system not only mitigates the effects of elevated temperatures on composite linings, but also allows for post-loading hydration of GCL and the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for superior barrier performance and a longer service life.
The first EBS project was successfully completed in November 2015. Earthworks construction began in mid-2013, with the installation of the liner being completed in November 2013. The consulting engineering firm, Royal HaskoningDHV, decided to install
the EBS to protect the environment surrounding a large hazardous waste sludge lagoon – with a 13 ha footprint and 10 m deep.
Analysis showed that significant VOC concentrations in the waste stream would diffuse through the containment barrier system. Due to the presence of hydrocarbons in the liquid waste, the GCL needed to be pre-hydrated for optimal effectiveness. VOCs needed to be prevented from entering the groundwater beneath the lagoon, either through a significant sorption layer or through removal via a leak-detection system.
Site conditions called for a double composite liner, with an intermediate leak detection layer complying with South Africa’s national norms and standards for disposal of waste to
landfill (Class A Barrier). This barrier design addressed seepage but required the EBS to mitigate the risk of VOC diffusion while also optimally hydrating the primary GCL.
The most important design aspect was to ensure even airflow throughout the facility. Each facility is unique and the site-specific parameters, as well as the composition of the barrier components, have to be taken into account at the start of a design.
To ensure even airflow, as well as optimise the size and power consumption of the mechanical extraction fan, the facility was divided into twelve compartments. The width of the compartments was calculated based on the pressure drop over the corresponding flow section for an evenly distributed flow. Geomembrane sheet sizes were also taken into account for practical design purposes.
Standard geomembrane installation practice was followed, paying special attention to specific design principles and thermal expansion and contraction wrinkles. Anchor trenches were adapted to accommodate the fluid extraction system.
Being the first large-scale installation of this innovative technology in the world, extensive quality control and diligent construction supervision were imperative to ensuring the successful outcome of the project.
Following a strict quality control process and electronic leak detection survey conducted by Aquatan, the construction facility was filled with hazardous waste and monitored for performance.
To date, the EBS continues to set a new post-construction performance standard for containment barrier systems.
Installed at a paper and pulp facility’s own private landfill, the second EBS was installed so that the client could start accepting thirdparty waste as an additional way of generating revenue. The client did its own project management. Bosch Stemele was the consulting engineer and Fountain Civils was the earthworks contractor, with Aquatan being the lining
contractor. Together, the team saw the need to install a single composite liner (Class C Barrier) to extend the existing landfill. The composite liner comprised a GCL with 2 mm co-extruded double textured HDPE on top and a cuspated sheet over that, to assist with the liner’s cooling function. The add-on facility is a crescent shape about 12 500 m2 in size.
Legacy challenges, including high temperatures at some of the pulp and paper client’s other landfills, had led to the realisation that a temperature mitigation system was necessary.
Aquatan assisted with the design of the system, focusing specifically on the removal of heat - generated by the decomposing waste - from the geomembrane. This project differed from the previous one where only air was drawn through the system. With the second system, the engineers were focusing on removing heat, which required a combination of water and air into the system to ensure adequate heat transfer takes place. (Water’s ability to transfer heat is roughly a thousand times that of air.)
The operating principle of the EBS is to introduce water at the top of the slope, which trickles down the liner through the cuspated sheet. The water is then collected in an HDPE pipe at the bottom. After being collected in the sump, the water is pumped to a heat exchanger where it’s cooled down, and cold water is recirculated continuously over the liner. In order to enhance the efficiency of the system air is constantly drawn through the system under a negative pressure.
the temperature of the geomembrane with six thermocouples installed adjacent to the geomembrane. Once the temperature of the geomembrane starts to increase, the ancillary equipment will be installed to commission the system.
The EBS provides designers with a practical, low-maintenance and cost-effective solution to address the requirements enforced by regulators. More importantly, it extends barrier service life, extracts VOCs and overcomes construction challenges relating to optimal hydration of the clay component – ultimately protecting the environment.
*Walter Meyer is the technical engineer at Aquatan.
The EBS concept was developed in such a way that fluid is drawn under negative pressure through a permeable zone adjacent to the barrier. The fluid both cools the primary composite lining and adjacent drainage system, and hydrates the GCL beneath the overlying membrane (after placement of the normal load and prior to the risk of its exposure to leachate).
Construction was completed in 2015 with only the relevant pipework and cuspated sheet installed. The owners is monitoring
AIC-certified welders in action at the paper and pulp facility
The fluid (gas, liquid or two-phase mixture) passing through the permeable zone also maintains the leak detection system to a low-to-zero concentration of VOCs, preventing their diffusion into the surrounding environment.
Drawing fluid under negative pressure ensures that oxygen is not introduced to the waste body through a discontinuity of the base membrane. This is important for preventing a chemical reaction that causes combustion. The negative pressure further results in a net outward flow towards the leakage detection system sump.
Cell 1 and 2
Bush cell
Contaminated stormwater dam
An urgent turnaround strategy was needed when one of Buffalo City’s major landfill sites became environmentally non-compliant: the following pictorial series showcases key milestones on the road to recovery.
b y s tan Jewaskiewitz* and n ash d ookhi (co-author)
he Roundhill landfill site, located within the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, near Berlin in the Eastern Cape, has been in operation since February 2006. The site is permitted and classified as a G:L:B+ site, based on the previous landfill classification system, and currently accepts approximately 600 tonnes per day of general waste and restricted volumes of treated healthcare risk waste (excluding pathological waste of human origin) from East London, Mdantsane township and the surrounding areas.
In recent years, the site has experienced global operational challenges, resulting in increased health and safety risks on the site and an increase in the adverse effects to the surrounding environment.
As the operational challenges grew greater, the site progressed to a state of non-compliance. Upon receipt of various compliance notices and directives from the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Water and Sanitation, and correspondence from the National Prosecution Services, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, the permit holder of the site, acknowledged the need for specialist consulting services.
Envitech Solutions was then appointed by the municipality, through the applicable procurement processes, to compile a turnaround strategy and an implementation plan, which would be in line and promote compliance with the landfill permit requirements of the Roundhill site and promote compliance with the prevailing
1 A sprawling mess
Aerial view of landfill site prior to rehabilitation – illustrating the uncompacted, uncovered, unsafe Cell 1 and Cell 2, the disposal of waste on an unlined area (bush cell) and the contaminated stormwater dam
environmental legislation. The images in this article detail the site and illustrate the previous major challenges and the states of noncompliance (as may be experienced typically locally and internationally), while illustrating the works undertaken and progress to a state of compliance. A contractor, Interwaste, was appointed to carry out all the remedial works and ongoing landfill operations.
*Stan Jewaskiewitz is a registered professional engineer and director at Envitech Solutions.
2 Slippery slopes
Landfill site prior to rehabilitation, illustrating the steep, unstable and unsafe side slopes of Cell 1 and Cell 2 – these slopes are a result of limited airspace and end tipping of waste. These steep slopes cannot be compacted and covered
3 Water, water, everywhere
Landfill site prior to rehabilitation showing burnt waste (blackened) –due to the uncompacted and uncovered waste, the site has experienced various landfill fires, resulting in severe smoke nuisances and health and safety issues. The fires have also damaged the leachate collection pipes, adding to the uncontrolled leachate flow problems
Leachate tank including surrounding bund area flooded with leachate – uncontrolled and unmanaged leachate flows around the site, being stored/bunded in unlined areas
Uncontrolled flow of leachate and contaminated stormwater off-site –resulting in negative environmental impacts downstream of the site
Completed temporary cell; commencement of landfilling of pioneer layer of waste – upon completion of the pioneer layer of waste, all incoming waste was landfilled directly in the temporary cell and all waste from the bush cell was immediately relocated to the temporary cell
Commencement of rehabilitation works. Removal of illegally dumped wastes from the “bush cell” – due to the limited available airspace at the site, a bush cell was created with the disposal of waste on an unlined area with no leachate and stormwater controls. As part of the rehabilitation, a temporary cell was constructed within the shortest time possible, to prevent any further waste from being disposed of on the unlined area. All incoming waste was then landfilled directly in to the temporary cell and all waste from the bush cell was immediately relocated to the temporary cell
Completed shaping of Cell 1 and Cell 2 and commencement of temporary capping – illustrating the shaped and compacted side slopes and top of Cell 1 and Cell 2, as well as the terrace control berm at the crest of the slope. The shaping and compaction of Cell 1 and Cell 2 were required prior to the construction of the temporary capping
Landfilling operations on fully commissioned temporary landfill cell –the temporary landfill cell consists of an in situ compacted clay liner, an HDPE liner, a protection layer and a leachate collection system. The operations on this cell are currently progressing well, with wastes being compacted and covered on a daily basis
Repairs to existing leachate collection system – during the rehabilitation works, various inconsistencies were found when compared to available as-built drawings, resulting in the complete excavation and exposure of all the leachate management systems for Cell 1 and Cell 2. The rectification of the leachate management system could only commence once all existing leachate infrastructure and its functionality/efficiency was determined
Progressive rehabilitation of Cell 1 and Cell 2 –illustrating the shaping and compacting of waste, the construction of corrective leachate management infrastructure, the laying of a gas drainage layer, separations layers, a geosynthetic clay liner and the placing of topsoil
Repairs to existing leachate system – illustrating the replacement of damaged/burnt leachate, collection and detection HDPE pipelines, as well as the construction of new leachate collection manholes/sumps
Repairs to existing geomembrane liner system on Cell 1 and Cell 2 – illustrating the severe damage to the existing geomembrane liner along the perimeter edge that needed repairs. In some instances, where no perimeter edge liners and containment berms were found, new containment berms were constructed and lined accordingly
Rehabilitated Cell 1 and Cell 2 – illustrating the current operational temporary cell on the left with the temporary capped and rehabilitated Cell 1 and Cell 2. Grass growth on Cell 1 and Cell 2 has commenced
fter a 15-year concession period, ownership of the ARP will transfer to the City of Tshwane at no cost. The ARP is situated next to the closed Kwaggasrand landfill site and forms part of the City of Tshwane’s commitment to a green economy, which delivers value to the residents.
New GX Enviro is the developer of the ARP, which represents a total investment of R245 million.
Once all four phases of construction are complete, the park will create 311 jobs, boosting the local township economy, furthering industrialisation and revitalising SMME development opportunities in the area.
Phase I of the ARP – the materials recovery facility (MRF) – cost a total of R35 million. Construction is complete and it is in a hot-and-cold commissioning phase. The inherent potential of the MRF to create 161 new, permanent green jobs is dependent on the implementation of a separation-at-source programme by the City of Tshwane and its adoption and support by residents, schools and businesses.
Phase I of the new Atteridgeville Recycling Park (ARP) was launched last year in November as the first large-scale build, operate and transfer project in the waste management sector in South Africa.
This programme, known as ‘Boa Gape - recycling for a better tomorrow’, will be rolled out in a phased manner to selected areas of regions 3 and 4, ensuring that clean, recyclable waste can be separately collected from homes, schools and businesses.
The transfer station (or mixed-waste processing facility)
represents a capital expenditure of R170 million (about R50 million in civils and R120 million in equipment) and will create an additional 50 new permanent green jobs. The green waste composting and building rubble crushing phases of the ARP will cost an additional R40 million and will create 100 new, permanent green jobs.
The next three phases will be completed within 12 months of the finalisation of contracting between the City of Tshwane and New GX Enviro.
Masopha Moshoeshoe, executive director of New GX Enviro, commented at the November 2016 launch, “The MRF has been completed with funding support received from the Industrial Development Corporation. Attracting private sector investment of R245 million in a previously marginalised township area, the Atteridgeville
Recycling Park will bring the point of disposal for the city’s waste management fleet closer to collection areas. This will result in reduced operating costs, pollution and carbon output for the city.” Assisting the City of Tshwane to achieve government’s target of a 34% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020, the park will also contribute to government’s longterm goal of a 42% reduction by 2025.
This is the second successful partnership between the City of Tshwane and New GX Enviro. New GX Enviro was contracted in August 2011 to deliver household waste collection, litter picking, illegal dumping
clearance, bulk container removal and recycling services within Atteridgeville, Lotus Gardens and Olievenhoutbosch (about 90 000 households) through a SMME incubation model.
1 An MRF with recyclable waste processed from the free Two-Bag system, which will be distributed by the city in phases to residents in regions 3 and 4
2 A transfer station or mixed-waste beneficiation facility
3 A composting facility where shredded garden waste will be turned into organic compost
4 A building rubble and tyre crumbing facility ReSource
Across all recyclate streams, profit margins are narrow, so optimising enterprise logistics is crucial for keeping businesses sustainable. Factors that improve logistics performance include load composition, bulk loading or bagging, driver competence and vehicle performance.
econstituted food waste, in the form of fertiliser, is a product regularly needed in large amounts by farmers to ensure their business success.
Westfert Fertilizer boasts that its agricultural clients consider the supplier irreplaceable because it has managed to strike the right balance to keep its costs low, translating into happier clients and higher profits for Westfert.
Westfert produces and distributes fertiliser either in 1 t bags or in bulk, about 34 t when bagged at full load, using a fleet of FAW 28.380FTs.
Jakobus de Wet’s fertiliser facility is located in the Free State maize-growing belt. Situated in Hoopstad, the hub has a delivery radius of about 350 km, mostly west of the N1. He partners with Westfert Fetilizer because the consistency and affordability of its services has enabled him to maintain reasonable prices for his own client base.
“We are the farmers’ favourite supplier because we do exactly what they ask, both
when and where,” explains De Wet. The recent drought has made his clients even more cost conscious, which is why keeping to a profitable formula has been crucial to his business success. “Even as little as R50 makes a difference to some of my clients in the farming community,” he adds.
At present, five FAW 28.380FT are parked next to the Westfert fertiliser plant, ready to go from as early as 03:00.
With the tri-axle trailers fully loaded, farm drops can be as short as 50 minutes. Fleet management systems from CTrack provide clear data on idling time, geofencing, driver behaviours and load-unload data.
The raw materials for various farmers’ unique needs include nitrogen, potassium, urea and potash.
The fertiliser production plant has been expanded to make use of a system where the exact mix in the exact quantities ordered per farmer is deposited into special bins – all managed via sophisticated software. These bins are cradled onto specialised trailers. At the dropsite, the bins can deposit exact quantities in just a few minutes.
“Our best fuel consumption across the fleet of five trucks saw a 31% saving on fuel alone.”
“Our best fuel consumption across the fleet of five trucks, based on my calculations of seven full 34 t loads delivered in a one-day cycle, compared to our previous fleet doing the same job cycle, saw a 31% saving on fuel alone,” says De Wet.
With this trailer, the FAW28.380FT can release all bins simultaneously in minutes, or like break bulk – separately – if loads are for different clients at other destinations. In this manner, the full 40 t payload can be optimised and turnaround times minimised as there will be no need to wait for forklifts, which could be out of commission or simply work too slowly with the pallets. This fertiliser tender trailer, with its pipe belt or auger for dropping the product, can also be equipped with chutes for direct loading into a farmer’s in-field equipment.
Dawie Naude, based at FAW’s Welkom dealership, notes that Westfert’s trucks are affordable and perform well, while having an exceptionally low cost of operation and being rugged enough to manage the potholed roads in the region. Having no difficult or overcomplicated electronics makes these vehicles straightforward and easy to drive.
“Ours is a drive-and-stop operation, so a truck will last us 14 to 15 years before replacement is needed,” he says.
brand new rear loader has been launched on the South African market, promising bigger payloads, enhanced productivity and the ability to handle the toughest waste streams.
Recently launched in South Africa, the all new, high-performance PT-1000A is the first rear loader specifically engineered for export as it can be manufactured and assembled virtually anywhere in the world.
The truck has been made available on the local market through South African truck body specialist company TFM and American refuse-truck supplier Heil. Heil is a subsidiary of an American manufacturing giant, the Dover Corporation. Parent company Dover backs the product 100%, having made its full global resources available in the form of Dover’s Environmental Solutions Group’s*
excellent design, fabrication and channel partner resources.
The PT-1000A is designed with extensive use of high-tensile, high-yield-strength steels to maximise durability and increase payloads. It has built-in and standardised safety features, super-fast cycle times for
increased productivity and capability.
The eagerly awaited new addition to Heil’s high-performance range of compactor bodies is specifically designed to handle commercial, residential, highly abrasive and organic wet wastes, all of which contribute to waste managers and recyclers.
The PT-1000A can be purchased directly from the TFM Group, whose partnership with Heil began more than 20 years ago. Heil expects the PT-1000A, along with its full range of front loaders, rear loaders and automated side loaders, to help the company maintain its global market leadership position. TFM has a national footprint with operational facilities throughout South Africa, offering experienced and effective sales, service, and manufacturing teams nationwide.
*The Environmental Solutions Group is Dover’s umbrella company for all its solid waste management brands including: Heil, Marathon, Bayne, and The
Moving away from the conventional sales of equipment. Focusing on tailor-made solutions for our diverse clients.
We provide the following environmental management solutions
Green Waste Solutions
Outdoor Equipment and Back-up Services
Organic Composting Waste Tire Solutions
Tyre-derived Fuels
Recycling Solutions
Forestry Equipment Vacuum and Cleaning Systems
Green Energy Technologies
We are proud to represent the following quality brands
The Polokwane Declaration established that South African cities are running out of landfill airspace fast. As one of the largest waste streams, green waste – food waste and cleared brush – could be diverted from landfills to save cities millions of rands, creating new municipal revenue streams.
b y f rances r ingwood
outh Africa has too few composting facilities on or near landfills, and those that do exist are usually in the hands of private companies rather than municipalities. This misses a golden opportunity to generate value from waste.
“If we don’t reduce, reuse and recycle our waste, we are throwing money away,” says James Kamau, managing director, Mfangano Solutions.
Compost manufacturers who sell locally will often need to source readily available materials like urea from places as far away as Russia, since compost is not effectively collected
for resale locally. Not only does this waste money, it also increases the carbon footprint of compost manufacturing – an industry which otherwise reduces carbon emissions.
“The most effective way to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill is to take a ‘zerogreen-waste-goes-to-landfill’ stance. The biggest landfill-related problem we have regarding this is lack of airspace. Major sites at some of the biggest metros, including Johannesburg and eThekwini, have closed or are closing in the coming years,” says Kamau.
The lack of composting facilities creates an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to focus on
commercialising green waste. Kamau believes that if this is done deliberately, with support from government, South Africa’s existing landfills can be optimised while also creating more local jobs.
As with many other waste streams, there is a divide between the type of green waste typifying urban and rural environments. For example, in the Western Cape, rural waste streams usually consist of cleared citrus trees. Johannesburg, on the other hand, is the world’s largest manmade forest. The city, therefore, presents a unique opportunity to create the necessary volumes and consistent supply to launch commercially successful projects.
“Currently, the majority of the City of Johannesburg’s green waste is collected by City Parks and Pikitup, after which it is transported to transfer stations or to landfill. If this were
SHARk II In ACTIOn Imported from Germany, the Shark II EP5500 horizontal grinder is easily transportable and offers the most advanced Euro emissions standards rating on the local market
used for biofuel or as compost, much more value would be gained,” says Kamau.
He also explains that while wood chips from recycled trees can be used to make chipboard furniture, this is a premium product and doesn’t capture the immediate value of diverting waste from landfill. “The money saved from extending the useful life of an existing landfill outweighs the revenue that can be generated by selling manufactured goods. For this reason, it makes sense to focus where it counts,” says Kamau.
Mfangano Solutions offers a range of green waste and other recycling equipment for the needs of industry, municipalities, building contractors and the domestic market. One of its most versatile ranges of machines, which is also ideally suited to South Africa, is the TS Industrie mobile chipper-shredder Green Series. These multi-vegetation machines are the smallest wood chippers of their kind available locally and feature a unique cutting mechanism.
“The Green Series features a combination of blades and chippers. If the diameter of the wood is too large, the hammers move out of the way so the blades can do their work. Since the hammers are positioned for more input than the blades, the hammers work first, reducing blade wear. Additional blades mean the hammers also experience less wear,” explains Kamau.
Reducing green waste six-fold, the Green Series is specially designed to be able to handle moist leaves such as the dense palm leaves found frequently in the
Increasing composting facilities is the most cost-effective way to improve available landfill airspace availability
Western Cape and Strelitzias most common in KwaZulu-Natal. “Nitrogen is an essential ingredient in compost and the Green Series is a really unique product in that it’s designed specifically for this purpose, adding value to green waste,” adds Kamau.
The Green Series is noise insulated, making it ideal for use by municipal and city authorities in urban environments. It also complies with all the latest health, safety and emissions standards. These products are ideally suited for creating mulching and cover material.
Newly available in South Africa is Mfangano’s Willibald Compost Turner TBU 3P. The purpose of this machine is to aerate heaped rows of compost (windrows) so that windrows can be heaped higher, ultimately saving space and making composting facilities almost three times more productive.
“The TBU 3P allows users to heap their compost as high as 3.3 m, whereas smaller machines will usually only allow for heights up to 1.2 m. It’s important to aerate compost because this allows the bacteria inside it to work, kick-starting the composting process,” explains Kamau.
The machine is compact and easy to use, promising higher-quality compost yields.
Another new offering, made available to the local market through Mfangano, is the Shark II EP5500 horizontal grinder, also from Willibald. This is a larger, mechanically fed machine. It can be
Part of The Green Series, this Cobra75DS has a 55.4 kW, four-cylinder diesel engine and a hopper with the air intake under the feed belt for a 25% improvement in discharge capacity
mounted on the back of a truck for on-site chipping, lowering logistical costs.
“What makes this machine unique is its dual functionality. It boasts two grinding systems. The first is the traditional drum-and-screen configuration and the second involves side rakes, which allow the user to adjust the size of the wood chips produced using a remote control,” says Kamau.
An added advantage of the Shark II is that it features a MAN engine using AdBlue technology. It complies with the most stringent European emissions standards, far in advance of what is required by local legislation.
“I believe that South Africa is on its way to becoming an environmental leader. And that being the case, it’s only a matter of time before the Department of Environmental Affairs adjusts its minimum emissions standards to reflect these goals. It also makes more sense for clients to want machines that meet more advanced environmental emissions standards because our machines lower our clients’ environmental footprint. What sense would there be in cancelling out those gains through high vehicle emissions?” asks Kamau.
Many municipalities don’t currently have green waste-processing equipment written into their budgets. So where a waste manager has the vision and the will to purchase these machines, there often isn’t much money left for services and maintenance. This is the biggest locally specific challenge when it comes to the correct operation of green waste vehicles and equipment.
“For this reason, Mfangano Solutions offers a three-year service and maintenance contract, which can also be extended. That way, our clients have the peace of mind of knowing that if one of our machines requires maintenance, they can come to us for after-sales support. When specialist machines are taken to the nonspecialist mechanic around the corner, that’s when things start going wrong and serious damage occurs. It’s far better to address equipment concerns directly with the supplier, who is most familiar with the machine,” concludes Kamau.
33% of the world’s food waste gets lost or wasted South African compost manufacturers are importing the raw material urea from as far afield as Russia Food waste only makes up a small fraction of green waste compared to clippings and cleared brush
US$990 bn is lost to the global economy through food waste
100% Recyclable. 100% Useless in landfill.
Beverage plastic bottles don’t belong in the bin. They’re made from PET, a very sophisticated material that is 100% recyclable.
Once you’ve finished your drinks, we turn the bottles into fibre for products like duvets, pillows and insulation.
Most importantly, we convert them into PET packaging again.
Look for the stamp on the bottom of the bottle and you’ll be sure that what you’re holding has far more value recycled than in the ground.
PET bottles have value, and the recycling of post-consumer PET bottles has the potential to impact on numerous areas of life and business in South Africa, including job creation.
riving the recycling of PET in South Africa is the non-profit PET Recycling Company (PETCO), which was established in 2004 to represent the country’s PET plastic industry’s efforts to self-regulate the life cycle of PET. Financed by a voluntary recycling fee paid by converters on PET resin purchased and grants from brand owners, resin producers and retailers, PETCO works with the plastics industry, community members, municipalities, NGOs and entrepreneurs to create a more sustainable PET plastic recycling system.
“Fulfilling the South African PET industry’s extended producer responsibility role, PETCO promotes the integration of the environmental costs associated with PET products throughout their life cycles into the market costs of the products, thereby shifting responsibility for the used container from government to private industry,” explains CEO Cheri Scholtz.
“Through its unique model, PETCO has injected R275 million of financial support into the PET recycling system. This financial support has created a ripple effect, supporting collectors and new downstream product development, such as carboot carpets, duvet and pillow filling, and ceiling insulation,” says Scholtz.
A 657% increase in the recycling of post-consumer PET bottles since 2004 has resulted from PETCO’s efforts, which equates to close on 4.7 million PET bottles collected for recycling each day in 2015. “South Africa has gone from 8
million bottles collected for recycling in PETCO’s first year of operation to more than 1.7 billion bottles collected in 2015,” says Scholtz.
1.7 billion
Bottles collected in 2015. 8 million in 2004
800
Plastic recovery stations that have been established throughout South Africa through PETCO
50 000
People who have enjoyed new employment opportunities
650 000
Tonnes of carbon that have been diverted from the atmosphere through PET recycling since 2004
She continues, “Since 2004, we’ve grown our targets from 16% to 52% of post-consumer PET bottles recycled, which has helped to create income opportunities for an estimated 50 000 people, saved over 650 000 tonnes of carbon and 2.7 million m3 of landfill space.
“We now recycle more plastic bottles than we send to landfill.”
Market innovation
PETCO has also helped to develop new end uses
“We now recycle more plastic bottles than we send to landfill.”
Cheri Scholtz, CEO, PETCO
for recycled PET. Most recently, recycled PET, or rPET, is blended with virgin material for the production of new PET containers for both food and non-food products (bottles, sheet and film applications).
“Uses for recycled product are crucial to sustaining the cycle,” says Scholtz. “For the model to be successful, it has to operate like any other business.”
With the recent expansion of Extrupet and Mpact’s recycling plants, which makes it possible to recycle PET bottles into new PET bottles for the carbonated soft drinks sector, PETCO has also realised its ultimate objective of a “closed-loop” system, where the recycled resin can be used again and again in new bottles.
“The South African plastics industry is an advocate for achieving world-class standards on recycling. To achieve this, everyone involved – from government to raw material producers, through to manufacturers, retailers, consumers and recyclers – needs to play their part in the solution,” concludes Scholtz.
that the industry is committed to providing solutions to ensure a more sustainable future,” said Callum Chen, secretary general of the Asia Plastics Forum.
“Together, as a united, global industry, we’re involved in hundreds of marine litter prevention programmes in all regions of the globe,” added Chen. “But there is still much to do. Growing our ranks helps further grow our work.”
Seven new signatories were added to the Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter in January this year in Hanoi, Veitnam, broadening the global plastics industry’s commitment to fighting against marine litter.
s of 19 January this year, seven new signatories were added to the Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter, also informally known as the “Joint Declaration” in 2016. New participants are the American Fiber Manufacturers Association, the Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers & Exporters Association, the Flexible Packaging Association, the Ghanaian Plastics Manufacturers Association, the Myanmar Plastics Industries Association, the Indonesian Olefins, Aromatics and Plastics Association, and the Vietnam Plastics Association.
“We’re excited to welcome each of these new partners, who bring perspectives from countries in Asia and Africa on types of plastic not previously represented in our Joint Declaration,” said Steve Russell, vicepresident: Plastics, American Chemistry Council, at the 27th Global Meeting on Plastics
and Sustainability in Hanoi, Vietnam. At the meeting, delegates also agreed that, going forward, the group will become the “Global Plastics Alliance.”
Broader reach
Delegates from 17 countries and four continents participated in the Global Meeting – making this the largest and best attended iteration to date.“Addressing marine litter issues effectively requires that we bring local, regional and global stakeholders together,” said Karl-H Foerster, executive director of PlasticsEurope. “Broadening our fold helps us find new partners and opportunities to tackle this very serious problem.”
“Plastic producers from around the world are coming together to keep used plastic out of the environment, and to improve the sustainability of these energy- and resourceefficient materials further. The strong participation at this meeting demonstrates
South Africa’s role
Plastics|SA has been a signatory of the Joint Declaration since 2011 and Packaging SA signed the Declaration in 2015. Douw Steyn, director: Sustainability, represents Plastics|SA’s Sustainability Council on various GPA task teams viz. advocacy, marketing and research; is the chairman of the subgroup: stakeholder engagement; and attends GPA meetings on an annual basis.
The Sustainability Council’s marine activities are in line with the six focus areas of the Joint Declaration, with a focus on providing strategic leadership to the industry on sustainability issues.
During the 2016 Hanoi meeting, Steyn was nominated to become, and is now, a member of the Global Plastics Alliance’s leading team on plastics waste management, led by Dr Jürgen Bruder, director of IK, the German plastics industry association.
The Global Declaration was launched in March 2011 at the 5th International Marine Debris Conference. Today, the declaration has been signed by 69 plastics associations from across the globe. Recognising their important role in fighting marine litter, these plastics associations have launched and are supporting projects in six key areas aimed at contributing to sustainable solutions. The six focus areas of the Global Declaration are education, research, public policy, sharing best practices, plastics recycling or recovery, and plastic pellet containment. In May last year, leaders from plastics organisations across the globe announced that there were about 260 projects planned, underway or completed.
ohn Hunt, MD, Mpact Recycling, notes, “As the leading recycler of paper products in South Africa, we are excited to be working with Tetra Pak in our joint efforts to unlock and increase collections of used beverage cartons.
“We collect about 500 000 tonnes per annum of recovered paper and plastic, and supply this recovered fibre to the Mpact Group’s paper mills and Mpact Polymers for processing into recyclatebased carton board, container board and recycled PET for sale to South Africa’s packaging industry. This campaign of collecting cartons will help us increase the volume of recyclable material and help reduce waste going to landfill sites,” he adds.
“Tetra Pak South Africa is committed to increasing used beverage carton recycling across sub-Saharan Africa,” says Tetra Pak’s Rodney Reynders, cluster leader: Environment for the greater Middle East and Africa. “Our goal is to recycle 40% of all beverage cartons by 2020 globally, which will only be possible by collaborating and partnering with relevant stakeholders, such as Mpact Recycling.”
According to the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (Prasa), for every tonne of paper recycled, three cubic metres of landfill space is saved and about 12 jobs created.
Just a few short years ago, regular carton recycling was difficult, if not impossible, until Tetra Pak teamed up with Gayatri Paper Mills in 2012 to launch a recycling facility able to handle the unique properties of cartons.
Cartons come in all shapes and sizes, and are generally filled with a variety of food and beverage contents; they are made up of 75% paperboard from certified and sustainably managed plantations to give them their form and strength. On the inside, they comprise thin layers of polyethylene and aluminium foil (polyalu) to keep food safe, seal in liquids and protect the contents from external moisture, oxygen and light without refrigeration. The caps on top are made of plastic.
Now carton recycling is not only possible but easy. Paper cartons used to package
A strategic partnership between Mpact and Tetra Pak is now making carton recycling in South Africa even easier.
fruit juice, milk, iced tea, flavoured milk, wine, custard, and dry goods like muesli and pet food can now be included in householders’ green Mpact Ronnie bags for kerbside collection.
In areas where householders, retail centres and housing estates have their recyclables collected by Mpact recycling, those wanting to go green can deposit their cartons and other recyclables in Ronnie Banks, located widely throughout the country. Money collected from selling these recyclables goes towards the upliftment of schools, churches and community centres.
process
In South Africa, it’s widely known that many householders and even large businesses are unaware of the procedures for depositing packaging for recycling. Clean recyclables are easier to handle than dirty ones and, for this reason, recyclables collected from the kerb need to be cleaned first. This is also true of cartons. For making the recycling of this product easier, Mpact recommends that the cap be removed or lifted, that the remaining contents be washed out, and then the carton is to be flattened by turning out the corners. After collection, Mpact Recycling processes the cartons through its pulping process, where the paperboard reduces into a pulp and separates from the polyalu layer. The pulp is then used to make new paperbased products.
For every tonne of paper recycled, three cubic metres of landfill space is saved and about 12 jobs created – Paper Recycling Association of South Africa
500 000
Tonnes per annum of paper and plastic are recovered by Mpact
40%
Tetra Pak’s goal for global beverage carton recycling by 2020
75% of cartons are made up of certified and sustainably managed paperboard
Towards the end of last year, R5.5 million in funding support was earmarked for five South African plastics recycling and collection companies. reSource finds out more.
ive successful funding applicants will be receiving a total investment of R5.5 million to expand their existing separation, collection, sorting and mechanical recycling facilities.
could contribute to the sustainable growth of the collection, sorting and mechanical recycling of polyolefin plastic,” explains Mandy Naudé, CEO of POLYCO. “We were looking for collectors and recyclers who needed funding to invest in new equipment, in order to take their business to the next level.”
Applications poured in from around the country, with many of the applicants requiring funding to implement new separation-at-source programmes, purchase minor equipment to overcome supply chain constraints or funding to support community-based projects to grow separated collection volumes. After a rigorous evaluation process, POLYCO’s board of directors approved applications from the five companies who were best able to meet the criteria for funding support.
POLYCO’s investment into these operations is either a once-off financial grant, or an interest-free loan, which has to be paid back over three years. Repaid monies are used to fund other recycling activities.
A brief description of the five recipient organisations follows.
The Polyolefin Recycling Company (POLYCO) – a plastics recycling support non-profit company – has invested more than R25 million into building and expanding the local polyolefin plastics recycling industry since 2013.
“Earlier this year, we issued a call for proposals for supply chain efficiency projects, specifically aimed at existing businesses who
“We were looking for collectors and recyclers who needed funding to invest in new equipment, in order to take their business to the next level.”
Mandy Naudé, CEO, POLYCO
Tufflex, a Germiston-based recycler, is a well-known and established brand in the local recycling industry specialising in recycling domestic and industrial polymers into usable products such as rail sleepers, furniture, armco barrier uprights, decking for walkways and pallets.
Under the guidance of new owner Peter Waldburger, Tufflex has been given a new lease on life with a great deal of time, money and effort having been spent on rejuvenating its facilities. Despite its successes, Waldburger was concerned about the company’s reliance on a continuous supply of clean, post-industrial feed stock to keep
its operations going. Should the situation occur where this supply runs dry, the company would have no alternative source of material and be left vulnerable.
“The grant will allow the purchase of a granulator to bring logistics costs down even further.”
Riaan Steyn, NC Cluster Recycling
“Thanks to POLYCO’s interestfree loan, we are now able to invest in a much-needed wash plant and shredding capacity that will enable us to also accept post-consumer material. Coming from households or off landfill sites, these plastics are often very heavily soiled and need to be washed before processing. We are excited about the possibilities this upgrade to our facilities will mean for our business in the years to come,” says Waldburger.
Based in Kya Sands, Gauteng, Lanseria Plastics specialises in recycling both high- and low-density (HD and LD) plastics. Owner Hannes Uys and his team identified new markets for their growing business, but needed to ensure a consistent recyclatexquality.
To this end, they applied for, and were awarded, an interest-free loan to be spent on investing in new test equipment to ensure a quality product. “We owe POLYCO a huge debt of gratitude for believing in our business and allowing us to invest in this much-needed equipment,” says Uys. “Being able to produce recycled polymer of consistent quality will allow us access into new end-use markets.”
POLYCO awarded a grant to a small collector on the outskirts of Soweto, called B-West
“Thanks to the investment, I can grow the company and be an even more professional collector.”
Johannes Brocherds, B-West
Cleaning and Recycling Project Co-operative. As with many of the smaller collectors, B-West had to find a way of getting its materials to the recyclers. Investing in a new baler and scale will allow the cooperative to weigh collected material and compact it into bales for economical delivery.
“Many thanks to POLYCO for uplifting B-West Cleaning and Recycling Projects. We are grateful for the opportunity. Thanks to your investment, I can grow the company and be an even more professional collector and give a more accurate report on our growth volumes,” says Johannes Brocherds of B-West.
Medium-sized recycler BB Plastic Solutions, based in Nigel, Gauteng, started operations in 2005. As a supplier of pelletised material to the plastics recycling industry, owner Bertus Becker needed funding support in order to grow the operation so that it could be able to process larger volumes of polyolefin plastics.
Recognising the potential of this business, POLYCO has awarded an interest-free loan to BB Plastic Solutions for installing a new extrusion line, a baler and testing equipment. “We will now be able to convert our extra HD polymer plastics, resulting in a huge benefit to the business,” Becker says.
“We will now be able to convert our extra HD polymer plastics, resulting in a huge benefit to the business.”
Bertus Becker, owner, BB Plastic Solutions
Relatively new recycling industry player NC Cluster Recycling, based in the Northern Cape, was awarded a grant in order to improve its collections of polyolefin recyclables in many of the smaller towns in the area. Until recently, these towns had very little or non-existent service levels.
“Our biggest challenge, thus far, has been ensuring that the waste from the almost 40 towns we are currently servicing gets transported quickly and effectively to the recyclers in the bigger towns. To do this, we desperately needed to invest in trailers that could be hooked onto our trucks in order to almost double the load for each trip,” says owner Riaan Steyn. “We are grateful for this grant as it will help us to become more economically viable, allowing us to purchase a granulator to bring logistics costs down even further.”
Commenting on the latest round of funding applications, Naudé welcomed POLYCO’s new project partners and congratulated them on their successful submissions. “We look forward to watching their businesses grow and prosper. POLYCO reiterates its commitment to them, to provide support, advice and network links to the other successful players in the industry,” she concluded.
In South Africa’s waste tyre industry, old tyres are shredded and recycled into new products such as rubber mats and key rings and are sold as new products
Minerals extraction may be on the rocks but urban mining – the process of reclaiming compounds and elements from products and buildings when they reach the end of their useful life –represents an unmissable opportunity for lifting the economy.
conomist Dr Reza Daniels says it’s important, now more than ever, to “grow the economic pie in South Africa”.
Daniels is of the view that waste offers us the opportunity to take what is fundamentally “dead capital” and bring it back to life by monetising it. He says the answer lies in urban mining.
Urban mining refers to the process of reclaiming compounds and elements from products and buildings when they have reached the end of their useful life – what we refer to as waste.
Daniels says that this has already been explored in South Africa’s waste tyre industry, but adds that “the opportunities for other waste streams are much larger”.
The economic impact of reintroducing resources into the economy was investigated in a new study undertaken by the Energy Research Centre of the University of Cape Town.
The study is called ‘The general equilibrium impacts of monetising all waste streams in South Africa’, by Daniels and two other authors,
The SA General Equilibrium (SAGE) model was used in the study to estimate the economy-wide impacts of seeing waste as a resource. Working with a scenario of 13 monetised waste streams, the following would be impacted:
• by reintroducing recycled commodities, there is the potential to increase domestic supply and lower the prices of commodities
• the electricity and plastics recycling sectors would see an increase in waste. This would add the most value out of all 13 waste streams due to their sizable impacts on the supply and price of commodities
• there is a notable decrease in the level of coal mining activity because of the decrease in coal-fired power generation. However, this creates a significant upswing in gross value added (GVA) for electricity-intensive users such as non-ferrous metals, iron and steel
• other key sectors such as agriculture and service experience an increase of more than 0.5% in GVA
Faaiqa Hartley and Tara Caetano. Daniels is also the head of research and development at the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa).
He says this study shows the opportunities that exist and the catalyst needed to make waste a viable economic driver locally. The study was calibrated to the 2009 economy. It shows that rolling out waste as a green industry would increase South Africa’s gross domestic product by 0.5%.
Daniels and his co-authors say this is a “conservative figure” as there are other variables and multipliers at play that could impact the end figure significantly.
In a second paper written by Hartley, Caetano and Daniels, called ‘Economic benefits of extended producer responsibility initiatives in South Africa: The case of waste tyres’, the authors expand on the simple supply shock outlined in the first paper using the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IIWTMP) as a calibration point.
The overarching findings, based on the introduction of the IIWTMP, are that there are several positive impacts on the South African economy. These include:
1. The introduction of the new industry could provide employment of labour and capital through the functions outlined in the IIWTMP.
2. The supply of total commodities in the economy could increase due to the production of recycled products, ultimately reducing prices and providing a positive stimulus to the economy and stimulating exports.
0.5% is the amount that GDP could improve by if waste as a green industry were rolled out
3. The tyre recycling industry provides a new source of demand to the economy, which could lead to a positive impact on other sectors if they are able to increase their output.
0.5% is how much GVA could be increased by if 13 waste streams were monetised
0.6% is how much household income could improve by if 13 waste streams were monetised
4. Government spending could increase as the shift toward extended producer responsibility reduces the financial
burden on government as producers would then pay for the disposal of their products.
Daniels notes that the results from this analysis are likely to be underestimating the potential economic benefits, as the environmental benefits associated with
recycling have not been quantified and accounted for, and that the analysis is static and not dynamic. However, he says that what is important to note is that that by using the IIWTMP as a case study, it can be shown that extended producer responsibility initiatives that directly subsidise waste beneficiation activities, and build recycling industries, do have significant potential for positive economic impacts and environmental benefits.
According
to the World Health Organization
(WHO), “Healthcare and other hazardous wastes contain potentially harmful microorganisms that can infect hospital patients, health workers and the general public.” Incineration provides an answer to disposing of these wastes but it is no perfect solution. b y f rances r ingwood
lack of awareness about the health hazards related to healthcare waste coupled with enforcement challenges are among the biggest problems plaguing the local healthcare and hazardous waste sector.
South Africa and its neighbours face more complex and challenging problems than those encountered by developed countries. In places like the USA and UK, regulation makes the sheer volume of healthcare waste a challenge when it comes to management, logistics and disposal.
Awareness
Closer to home, issues such as sorting waste and finding safe disposal methods are more primary challenges, with waste volumes being secondary.
In developing countries, the unsafe disposal of hazardous medical waste (also called biowaste) is particularly urgent because when waste is dumped illegally or improperly sorted and sent to landfills, the people who live on and off of landfills – waste pickers – are exposed to a myriad of health problems. These range from tetanus when cut by sharp objects to becoming vectors for the spread of drug-resistant diseases.
The most commonly used and cost-effective solution for developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is incineration. UN guidelines compel countries who are signatories of the Stockholm Convention of 2001 to use the most advanced technology available for the treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes. Incineration is behind many other technologies adopted in the developed world, like autoclave, microwave, chemical, irradiative (using germicidal ultraviolet light), biological enzyme and mechanical
additional consideration for facilities forced to rely on incineration for disposal is that the kind of items associated with contamination are frequently made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is a plastic that produces some of the most persistent human and environmental health impacts when burned.
technologies. Many of these are beyond the financial reach of Africa.
The surge in HIV and Aids infections that occurred around the early 1990s led to a higher prevalence of disposable items in hospitals. This saw a waste volume spike in the US in particular but South Africa too began to experience increased biowaste volumes. The USA’s hazardous waste fraction rose to become the third highest waste stream for disposal.
In years since, the initial panic about the spread of HIV and Aids has abated, ushering in the knowledge that striking a balance between being cautious and minimising waste volumes is of maximum overall benefit to the environment and human health.
Infectious waste is estimated to comprise 15% of the overall waste stream. By separating waste effectively, this amount could be cut by more than a third. Infectious waste is the most costly to dispose of, which is why proper segregation programmes could drastically reduce costs. An
A major problem with incineration is its contribution to air pollution loads. Incinerators have been found to release one of the highest rates of dioxins – a group of chemically related compounds linked to hormone disruptions and cancer, and mercury, which causes kidney and respiratory failure.
Not only does the incineration of biowaste increase the carbon footprint, but scientists are discovering that certain medicines are compounding the problem. According to a study published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, three anaesthetics – sevoflurane, isoflurane and desflurane – have been found to contribute as much damage as 100 to 1 200 cars in a singles year, from just one busy hospital.
According to a UN Development Programme report published in 2009, there are an estimated 1 000 incinerators in Africa, many of which are inoperative or operating below standard. Legislation is one of the biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to disposing of hazardous waste appropriately. South Africa definitely takes a leading role, with the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (NEMWA) (No. 59 of
There are an estimated 1 000 incinerators in Africa, with many of those suspected to be defunct or operating below standard
Proper segregation of medical waste has been identified as the most effective way to reduce the cost of hazardous medical waste disposal
2008), and the NEMWA Amendment Act (No. 26 of 2014).
Together, these provide a definition of hazardous waste and set out the appropriate measures for its transport, storage, treatment and disposal. These include many of the more advanced methods used in developed countries, such as biological and physicochemical treatment or the autoclaving, drying or microwaving of hazardous waste. South Africa’s laws also include regulations for the proper construction and management of H:H hazardous waste landfill sites.
In spite of South Africa’s leading legislation, many of the country’s hospitals continue to rely on incinerators due to cost constraints.
Other countries on the continent, such as the Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania, have no landfills equipped for the disposal of hazardous biowaste.
When global brands establish themselves in African countries, they often bring with them leading international principles and regulations for hazardous waste disposal for the purposes of ensuring long-term business sustainability and avoiding reputational damage. This has seen the rise of numerous specialist third-party waste management, treatment and disposal companies, offering isolated services treating hazardous waste to meet international best practice norms and standards.
Nonetheless, illegal dumping and the dumping of developed nations’ hazardous waste in Africa – deemed cheaper due to lack of regulation –remains a real problem. Africa’s status as a hazardous waste dumping ground has been continually highlighted in local and international press reports. Medical waste continues to wash up on beaches and in rivers in various African countries. Even where legislation is world class, enforcement challenges continue to plague the local market, threatening the environment and communities’ health.
Power & Electricity World Africa
colocated with The Solar Show
28-29 March 2017 • Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa • Brian Shabangu +27 (0)11 516 4015 or brian.shabangu@terrapinn.com
Africa’s largest and longest-running power and energy expo. The event organisers predict upwards of 7 000 attendees from across the African continent (and elsewhere around the word) with 300 speakers who are industry professionals.
African Construction and Totally Concrete Expos
23-24 May • Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa • Soren du Preez + 27 (0)21 700 4300 or Soren.dupreez@hypenica.com
Catering to the entire African construction, cement
and concrete industries, 9 000 construction industry players are expected to attend this two-day event. The audience includes architects, engineers, contractors, quantity surveyors, government representatives as well as suppliers of products and services to the industry.
6-8 June 2017 • Venue: Ticketpro Dome
Rene Staack at Rene@ThebeReed.co.za
Colocated with Africa Automation Fair, this trade exhibition is the ideal platform to showcase the latest technology, innovations and solutions for processing, reducing and managing waste and pollution. It promises to connect industry specialists and professionals across private and public sectors.
Landfill 2017 “Back to Basics”
18-20 October • Buffelsdraai Regional Landfill, Verulam, eThekwini
Reshad Hassan reshadh@kaytech.co.za
The KwaZulu-Natal Landfill & Waste Treatment Interest Group announces the 12th biennial seminar dedicated to capacity-building and technology transfer in the science and practice of waste treatment and disposal by landfill. Landfill 2017 continues this highly successful series and, for the first time, it will be held on a major operational landfill. This will give landfill equipment suppliers an ideal opportunity to demonstrate their products in action. The associated static exhibition will be a good showcase for organisations that have products and services to offer to the waste management fraternity.
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