Oricol Environmental Services, an industry leader in environmental services, waste management, waste treatment and recycling, has announced the official opening of its new resource recovery facility in Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal.
 
The facility, which has been certified to the prestigious international standard ISO 14001-2015 (environment) certification, will be unveiled at a ceremony on 14 November 2018.

The ISO 14001-2015 certification will be officially presented to Oricol by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) at the opening of the facility.
 
All other facilities operated by Oricol are certified to the OHSAS 18001-2007 (safety), ISO 14001-2015 (environment) and ISO 9001-2015 (quality) standards.
 
The Cato Ridge facility is permitted to process hazardous solids, liquids and sludges, which includes solvents, oils and oil sludges, paint sludges, solids, acids and bases.
 
Constructed as a resource recovery centre, operations at the facility will focus on producing homogenous fuels from liquid and sludge waste material.

This fuel will enable InterCement, a global leader in cement production, to substitute a certain amount of coal with this fuel to supply energy to its cement kiln near Port Shepstone on the South Coast.
 
“The net result will be a reduction in coal usage, and waste previously destined for landfill will now be used as a coal replacement, coal being a finite resource,” said Richard Sanders, founder and chief executive of Oricol.

“This is just another way we are turning waste into a resource,” he said.
 
The facility will also operate as an additional resource recovery depot that renders liquid and solid wastes suitable for recovery or safe disposal.
 
This includes solvent recovery and purification with its partners, ChemerG, as well as acid and base neutralisation and treatment of difficult to treat effluents streams.
 
The company’s other resource recovery depots are based in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Durban.
 
“The ISO 14001-2015 (environmental) accreditation is important for Oricol because it helps our company improve its environmental performance through using resources more efficiently and reduces waste, giving us a competitive advantage and the trust of our stakeholders,” said Sanders.