In South Africa we generate an estimate of 122 million tons of waste per annum with 90% of this waste being disposed of to landfills, meaning, that as a country, we only currently recycle around 10% of our waste.
As we know, this excess waste can lead to environmental challenges like underground water contamination and methane creation – and while we are starting to make the transition to wind, solar, and other renewables - waste-to-energy (WtE), to our mind, is a critical factor we can, and must, address.
So how do we create energy from waste? Well, it occurs through three key processes – thermal, biological and physical – but essentially it is a process of using various technologies to convert waste to electricity, steam or gas. And this is what we need and want as it addresses two major challenges facing our country simultaneously.
And it can be done. There are many tried and tested solutions globally and case studies of successful waste-to-energy implementations, but we also have local examples in South Africa such as the 4MW Bio2Watt plant in Bronkhorstspruit which creates electricity through the anaerobic digestion of organic waste streams. We typically have small scale plants in operation however, as the market shifts and the need for more sustainable energy sources rises, waste-to-energy options are being explored in greater detail.
Unfortunately, the reality is that we also must find ways to mitigate high transport costs, manage the cost of scalability of these projects, support technology investment, operations, and processing - as well as securing relevant offtakes to sell the power too. This means that we need a stronger level of industry, and government collaboration. We also need education and awareness, investment in waste innovation – as well as supportive policies and infrastructure - if we hope to realise the potential of waste to energy locally.
However, the South African government has made strong commitments to redirect waste from landfills and in support of this, new laws have been legislated and regulations are being rolled out - all aimed at cleaning-up South Africa. One such example of this is the New Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) that is being implemented. The legislation says that producers of particular products that ultimately produce waste, are required to take responsibility for these products after consumer use.
This means that from the start of production, producers are required to consider the impact of the waste generated from their products, and now must take into account the potential to reuse, recycle and recover the "waste" and find other measures to change the way in which these products are managed throughout their life cycle. For example, re-utilising materials back into the production process, or finding alternative solutions to produce other products, so that nothing is wasted. And of course, we love this because it not helps to reduce the extraction of raw materials and the country’s ‘throw-away’ culture but promotes resilience and long-term sustainability for the local waste sector.
This is all good news and yes, Interwaste is a massive proponent of this type of innovation within the industry. For example, we offer a blending platform to clients for their hazardous waste (like oils and grease) – where their high-calorific value liquid waste can be diverted from landfills and made into an alternative fuel that can be used for co-combustion with traditional fuels. And we have our RDF plant that creates fuels from solid, dry, non-useable solid waste – typically found in industrial packaging waste – which we convert it into alternative co-combustible fuel.
But we all must do more; we must push harder to find and deliver legally and ethically compliant ways to manage waste products – and solutions that are sustainable in how we manage our energy resources.
As Barack Obama himself has said, “A nation that cannot control its energy sources can’t control its future.”