Waste separation at source key to improved recovery and landfill diversion

4th March 2016

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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The greatest value is derived from recycling materials that are well sorted and uncontaminated. This requires that as much waste as possible, and as efficiently as possible, is separated early in the recycling process chain.

Abstracting the highest value of recyclables before they get further contaminated and thus diminish in value further along the value chain would entail households and commercial enterprises separating waste, says Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) communications director Albi Modise.

Material recovery facilities (MRFs) in South Africa typically use manual, labour-intensive sorting lines, as well as waste pickers to help with recovery and separation. This approach is supported by many, as it creates numerous opportunities for relatively low-skilled jobs in these recycling plants.

However, a large percentage of material is either not correctly identified by manual sorters in MRFs or cannot be timeously recovered on conveyor belts through manual sorting, as pickers preferentially pick high-value materials. This results in significant quantities of viable material still being sent to landfill, says Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Waste Research, Development and Innovation Implementation Unit principal scientist Professor Linda Godfrey.

“To maximise diversion of waste from landfill implies maximising the recovery of recyclable material passing through our MRFs, which will require the adoption of technology. There is a wide array of technology that can be used to maximise the separation of waste in MRFs, including screens, magnetic sorters, optical sorters and air classifiers, beside many others.

“However, recycling in South Africa should not be seen as either manual or technology-based, but requires a combination of both to enable more secondary resources to enter the value chain and, overall, create more jobs across the entire value chain, instead of just in an MRF or a recycling plant,” she says.

Separation Pilot
The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and its waste management company, Pikitup, have been piloting waste separation initiatives in Johannesburg since 2009. In 2015, 17% of households in the pilot areas (the city centre and adjacent suburbs) were participating, and the CoJ is aiming to achieve 20% participation during this year. Further, the CoJ has also leveraged private residential developments and estates, and provides the transportation of separated waste from these developments to MRFs.

This initiative has also seen private-sector companies providing technological solutions for waste separation and processing, in addition to community cooperatives, individual pickers and microenterprises. The combination of community involvement, mainly as part of the CoJ’s Jozi@Work programme, and private- sector involvement, is aimed at stimulating a recycling economy in Johannesburg, says Pikitup project manager Roelf de Beer.

The CoJ initiative involves households separating their waste into three bags: wet and organic waste, plastics and glass, and paper. However, recovery is increased through the involvement of pickers, cooperatives and community partici- pation in buy-back programmes, and their roles are also being formalised through this model.

“By recovering greater quantities of secondary resources from our waste and feeding them into local markets, recycling and downstream manufacturing, we can increase income opportunities for informal collectors and increase employment,” concurs Godfrey.

Guidelines are available for municipalities to develop integrated waste management plans, and their role is mainly to provide buy-back centres and MRFs, raise awareness within communities, capacitate stakeholders and community participants, and promulgate by-laws that will regulate and circumscribe recycling processes.

However, various waste streams have different requirements for handling and recycling, and industry participation, through Industry Waste Management Plans (IndWMPs), is aiding in determining how best to separate, handle and process various materials to ensure their sustainable recycling.

“Recent investments in local recycling technology mean that, for many waste streams, local recycling capacity exists. However, we must continue to explore the development of local markets by growing local capacity and associated infrastructure and finding new, innovative end-uses to stimulate new markets for recycled resources,” says Godfrey.

Modise avers that, in general, there is a sufficient market for recycled resources, but govern- ment is encouraging more participation in the recycling economy and the IndWMPs make provision for further opportunities for participation by a variety of stakeholders. IndWMPs are also helping government to identify weak points that must be subsidised to sustain the separation, recovery and recycling of various waste streams.

The pricing of recyclables is a key challenge – and the pricing strategies of the National Environmental Management Waste Amendment Act of 2014 aim to address these challenges to ensure that recycling businesses are viable and sustainable, he adds.

“Subsidising the collection and recycling of waste streams is at the heart of what is referred to as extended producer responsibility, but only for those waste streams that are not economically viable to recycle on their own,” says Godfrey.

“Recycling will always compete against the price of virgin material and, to create a sustain- able recycling economy, subsidies will be required at weak or vulnerable points in the system.”

These are typically at points such as collection (source separation) and recycling (reprocessing). The market demand varies for each waste stream related to its economic viability and the end-use applications, she explains.

Government, at local and national level, has a very important role to play in creating an environment that supports the diversion of waste from landfill, that discourages landfilling and incentivises recycling and recovery, and stimu- lates local investment and entrepreneurship. This reduces the risk of investing for the private sector in local recycling infrastructure and technology, she highlights.

“The private sector is at the heart of a local recycling economy in South Africa. Recycling today is largely as a result of the private sector with assistance from the informal sector,” says CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment Waste for Development research group leader Professor Suzan Oelofse.

Clean and Well Sorted
For recycling to be effective, one needs clean, well-sorted material. The higher the quality of the sorted material (the better sorted it is), the more likely the chance that recycled material will replace virgin materials in manufacturing processes, she says.

However, sorting into too many waste streams may deter participation by households, make collection of sorted waste a logistical challenge, and increase costs and reduce viability. For example, households must place waste in the correct bin to avoid double handling as far as possible and, thus, separating waste into basic streams is held to be the most effective way to encourage household participation.

“The main job creation opportunities lie in the collection and sorting of these source-sepa- rated recyclables and higher-skilled jobs can also be created in processing and manufacturing industries. Job creation can be maximised through recycling further down the value chain and within the municipal collections and recycling infrastructure,” highlights Modise.

Despite this, it is most economical to separate waste as close as possible to the waste generation source, he adds.

“Recyclers are the main beneficiaries of better recovery of resources in waste streams, as they receive clean waste to process. However, we need to create local demand for recycled materials to boost the recycling industry and value chain.

“This requires high-quality recyclables and high-quality products. The better the quality of product at a competitive price, the better chance of creating a sustainable market for recycled products and commensurate use in local industries or value chains,” says Oelofse.

Despite the focus on keeping prices as low as possible to support the use of recovered resources, producers of products remain financially and operationally responsible for the safe management of those products at end of life.

The impact of producer responsibility on price will depend on whether the producer transfers this cost on to the consumer. Many will pass on this cost, some will absorb it and some will look to redesign their products to make them more recyclable, which could be supported by a variable extended producer-responsibility fee, depending on whether the products are ‘designed for the environment’ or ‘designed for recycling’, explains Godfrey.

“The risk of increasing prices on packaged goods, particularly foodstuffs, is very real. But increasing prices on products, whether for packaged goods or electronic equipment, could be a mechanism to encourage more conscientious consumption, pushing producers to offer environment-friendly products,” she adds.

The environmental costs of products can be included in the retail price through determination of the reasonable cost of managing the waste that will emanate from the product at the end of its life. This practice does increase prices, but the increase should be reasonable and based on the value of the product, says Modise.

“The impact on the economy [arising from extended producer-responsibility fees and prices] should be balanced against the positive impact of increased recycling, having an environment that is not harmful to health and the recovery of valuable resources that will reduce industry reliance on virgin materials and vulnerability to price fluctuations.”

All IndWMPs align with the ‘waste hierarchy’ set out by the DEA, propose awareness and capacity building measures, provide funding models that enable the development and implementation of all the necessary systems and required infrastructure, and provide details of how to empower previously disadvantaged individuals within these value chains.

However, municipalities must not be the principal implementing agent, and a broad social and commercial partnership approach is required to sustain recycling, says Oelofse.

However, Modise encourages municipalities to draw up integrated waste management plans for their areas, and provide the framework for recycling.

“Municipalities should then use the integrated waste management plan guidelines and the IndWMPs to create direct jobs, plan the development of a recycling economy in their area and stimulate employment creation in their communities, while improving the quality of the environment our people live in. This is starting to happen, mostly in urbanised settlements and cities, but the role of municipalities in addressing waste streams, and leveraging them to boost their economies, must be encouraged and increased,” concludes Modise.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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