Waste management
Waste management generally covers all aspects of the handling of solid
and waste related issues, which includes waste avoidance, waste
collection, landfilling, recycling and waste-to-energy application.
According to the CSIR in 2011 South Africa has generated 101,128,914
tons of waste, of which 10.7% were recycled. 39,194,727 tons (38.8%)
were of organic origin and only 1,058,260 tons (0.3%) were recycled.
Unfortunately, this often does not include waste in liquid and gaseous form, which is mainly managed by defining incomplete environmental compliance parameters. As long as compliance is ensured disposal costs do not appear on companies or government accounts as a permanent cost centre. The recycling of effluent and gas emissions offers business opportunities as they contain equally valuable substances and compounds and need to be considered in a holistic understanding of waste management.
Recycling
Recycling refers to recovering waste through a refurbishment process in
order to substitute or complement natural resources and create closed
loops in material flows within the economy. This mind set is expressed
in the South African ‘National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) 2011′ in which five levels with different priorities are defined:
Reduce and reuse
The avoidance of waste is rated as top priority. The realisation must be
achieved through changes in behavioural patterns of domestic,
commercial and industrial waste producers. Behavioural changes require a
combined approach of education and awareness creation in the entire
society, which provide the greatest overall benefits for society,
economy and environment. This exercise is the primary responsibility of
public authorities and can be implemented e.g. through integration in
public education programmes in combination with a suitable legal
framework. The appreciation of the highest benefit has also
opportunities for private business when taken into account in business
planning.
Other waste such as liquid effluent and gas emission are currently
controlled more effectively through environmental compliance thresholds
but are mainly targeting the industrial sector, although a shift in
mind-set for the domestic is emerging by e.g. charging levies for carbon
dioxide emissions of motor vehicles. The carbon certificate trading
system for mitigating green house gases is globally the first monetary
incentive in implement mitigation measure that go beyond environmental
compliance thresholds.
Recycle and energy
Although solid waste recycling and energy generation is of lower
priority than the avoidance of waste, technical solutions and business
concepts are complementary and equally important. The large proportion
of organic waste is the most significant area for technological
interventions with greatest impacts on social, economic, and
environmental.
Anaerobic digestion is one technology solution for organic waste. The
technology output of biologic fertiliser and biogas meets the criteria
of both, recycling and energy.
Biogas related gas management technologies have further potential to
recover substances from gas streams for creating valuable products. Due
to a missing regulatory framework prospects for implementation are
rather occasional than a mass market providing incentives for a
systematic role out.