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SA enters global race to combat plastic pollution and find alternatives

VALUABLE RESOURCE Informal plastic recyclers at work at a landfill dump site at Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape

Photo by Creamer Media

23rd August 2019

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Late in July, Japan and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) signed an agreement at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in Pretoria, to cooperate to counter plastic pollution in South Africa.

The agreement was signed by UNIDO representative in Southern Africa Khaled El Mekwad and Japanese ambassador to South Africa Norio Maruyama, and will be jointly executed by UNIDO and the CSIR. The joint research programme will look at both plastic waste and alternative materials to conventional plastics. The programme will run for three years, paid for by a Japanese grant of $1.8-million.

At the signing ceremony, Maruyama observed that “[t]his project has been mentioned between the two countries’ leaders”. Japan had agreed to provide the funding after a bilateral meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa prior to the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June. At that G20 summit, Abe announced that Japan would support the waste management efforts of developing countries, including capacity building and infrastructure development. The ambassador described the signing of the agreement in Pretoria as a “concrete achievement” of that policy.

Strategic Partners

“UNIDO is a strategic development partner for South Africa and also has a strong and long-standing partnership with the government of Japan,” explains El Mekwad. “By implementing this agreement with a national institution, the CSIR, national ownership of the programme will be further strengthened. It also includes the private sector. It is a public–private partnership. The South African plastics industry is involved. It is also open to other players.

“UNIDO and Japan have been adopting a very environmentally friendly principle – reduce, reuse and recycle,” he points out, adding: “The idea is to apply it in this project. The main purpose of this project is to introduce major alternatives to conventional plastics in the manufacturing process. UNIDO believes in the sustainable management of natural resources and addressing environmental challenges.

“I would like to highlight that this project is a pilot project, which is being implemented in only a few countries,” he adds. “But it could be an inspiring project for other countries. The UNIDO office here is the regional office for Southern Africa. This could be an inspiring model for other African and developing countries of waste plastic management.”

“I think this agreement makes concrete a number of objectives set out in our new White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation,” affirms Department of Science and Innovation (DSI – previously, Department of Science and Technology) deputy director-general: international cooperation Daan du Toit. “One of the objectives we want to achieve is the ‘circular economy’. The circular economy is not only about environmental sustainability but also about unlocking new economic opportunities.” (The concept of the circular economy is one in which waste is seen as a valuable resource to be kept in the value chain, in order to get the maximum utility out of the source material.)

“We also have a vision for South African science and technology to be a leader in sustainable development – to be a partner of choice in international initiatives,” he stresses. “This would also contribute to developing a knowledge economy.”

The agreement is also a very good example of the type of partnerships that the DSI seeks to encourage, namely public–private partnerships and international partnerships. Both these kinds of partnerships, he notes, have brought with them investments that complement those already made by the South African government. Given that State finances are “constrained”, international partnerships have become crucially important to the country.

“We would be keen to see more of these partnerships,” he avers. “We will be holding further talks with UNIDO and with other international partners beyond Japan.”

At the signing ceremony, industry association Plastics SA executive director Anton Hanekom affirmed that the industry wanted future policy on plastics to be based on evidence. Investment in future alternative production lines also had to be based on evidence. “The research that will be done through this initiative will provide the evidence,” he asserted. “We should declare war on pollution – not on plastics.”

“It shouldn’t be about plastics,” agrees Du Toit. “It should be about pollution.”

“We’re not laggards in this space, but we will now be able to deepen what we are already doing,” elucidates CSIR executive: business excellence and innovation Khungeka Njobe. “We have already been looking at alternatives to conventional plastics, such as bioplastics. This project will allow us to also look at other technologies, such as those from Japan. Japan has been doing a lot of work in this space. So, we will look at localising overseas technologies, while also putting out our own solutions. We already have research and development infrastructure in this area.”

This joint project will allow the CSIR to cooperate both nationally and internationally and to get access to additional resources. It will also allow the CSIR to strengthen its already existing capabilities and competences. Whether or not it will result in investment in new research infrastructure, it is still too early to tell.

She warns that waste management, especially plastic waste management, is actually a complex issue. A key part of the programme will be determining the possible consequences of implementing various technologies in the South African environment – natural, social and economic.
“This joint programme is based on a clear South African need. It was scoped jointly by the CSIR, the South African plastics sector and UNIDO,” explains CSIR manager: waste research, development and innovation, and principal scientist Professor Linda Godfrey. “It stems from two challenges facing South Africa – firstly, the growing problem of plastic waste pollution, and, secondly, the uniformed appearance of alternative plastics in our market in the past few years. There are a lot of products for which alternatives make sense – for example, microbeads in cosmetics. But, if we are to solve the plastic pollution problem, we require multiple interventions including a reduction in the single use of plastics, transitioning to alternatives where it makes sense, improved waste collection and strengthened local recycling industries. This particular project will focus on just one of these areas – alternatives to plastics.”

No Simple Solution

As Njobe pointed out above, the CSIR already has its own research programmes regarding plastic and other wastes, including substitution, recycling and reuse. Many of these have been funded by government.

“We see growing societal pressure against single-use plastics, which has forced some retailers to change to alternatives, such as paper carrier bags or biodegradable plastic bags. While, at face value, these alternative products appear to be more sustainable, they can also create confusion,” cautions Godfrey. “There are products being marketed as biodegradable that aren’t, such as oxodegradable; or others are said to be compostable, but, in fact, are only compostable under industrial composting conditions. We have to be careful about adopting new technologies – there could be unintended consequences. Some biodegradable technologies can have bigger environmental footprints than traditional plastics, and, as such, transitioning to alternatives has to be informed by evidence. Biodegradable materials are, on their own, not the solution. They have to be part of a broader integrated solution.”

Consequently, dealing with the problem requires multiple actions which have to be executed simultaneously, she stresses. A key problem is the inability of many municipalities to handle the waste produced within their jurisdictions. This is part of the crisis of service delivery in many places. So, part of addressing the plastic waste issue is to help municipalities better manage their municipal solid waste, and this the CSIR is seeking to do. It is currently funding a study, being undertaken by the University of the Western Cape, into illegal waste dumping in South Africa and why it appears to be socially acceptable.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries is currently considering bans on a number of single-use plastics. “But bans have to be evidenced,” she highlights. “While bans can result in immediate intervention, they can have impacts – for example, job losses in manufacturing, or can result in the transfer of impacts.”

The CSIR Waste Research, Development and Innovation Roadmap is also funding a life-cycle sustainability assessment on plastic carrier bags to evidence the most appropriate option for South Africa. This is necessary because some retailers are announcing that they are phasing out the use of plastic carrier bags, often without a clear understanding of what the impacts of their decisions will be, or any clue about what the most appropriate alternatives are.

“When it comes to understanding the impact of waste plastic on the environment, we’ve just launched a science review of marine litter for South Africa,” she reports. “What do we actually know about marine litter in South African waters? And what don’t we know? What are the economic impacts – for example, on tourism and fishing? Once we have a better understanding of the evidence gaps, we can start to direct research into these areas to better inform decision-making.”

Waste Not, Want Not

The CSIR has already developed bioplastic materials to proof-of-concept level, bioplastics being plastics derived from agricultural and biomass feedstocks. “We think we have something unique,” asserts CSIR polymers and composites manager Dr Avashnee Chetty. “Bioplastics offer a way to keep resources in the value chain. We have to recycle plastics, so that we can have multiple uses of the same resource. Bioplastics can be recycled mechanically, like conventional plastics, but they can also be recycled organically, as compost. And that compost can be used to help grow the trees, or other plant life, from which the bioplastics were originally derived! This helps create a low-carbon circular economy. However, it is important to South Africa’s growing plastics recycling industry that biodegradable and nonbiodegradable plastics are not mixed together, as this would compromise both recycling lines.”

The bioplastics developed by the CSIR are 100% biodegradable in soil, compost and water (within a period of three to six months); 100% recyclable (using mechanical means), and 100% based on renewable resources and are nontoxic. They also have good mechanical properties, similar to those of conventional plastics, so they can be used in both rigid and flexible applications. They can be processed using existing plastic-manufacturing equipment and processes, including melt extrusion, blown film and injection moulding. And they are suitable for packaging applications (such as films, bags and crates) and agricultural applications (such as mulch films and on nursery plots). Some other bioplastics, developed elsewhere, can only be composted in industrial facilities or are not biodegradable in soil.

“A lot of industry partners have shown interest in our technology,” she reports. “We now need to work with partners to ‘productionise’ it, and then commercialise it for different niche opportunities. This would allow the plastics industry to develop new product lines and new revenue streams. But biodegradable plastics are not a solution for all plastics, but for specific niche products and applications, such as plastics destined to land in agriculture, or where food content and packaging can be managed together, such as in the food services industry.”

The CSIR is also addressing the issue of waste beyond just plastics. “There are quite significant opportunities in waste,” notes CSIR chief scientist and research group leader Professor Bruce Sithole. “For example, forestry. When a tree is cut down, to make paper, only 47% of the value of the tree is used. The rest is waste. Forestry processing is very inefficient. What we are saying is that this waste is a valuable resource. What value can we get from that resource? What new value chains can we create?”

(South African forestry is a plantation- based industry, using exotic species, as indigenous African trees are not good for paper production, and so does not use natural forests for timber; consequently, there are no deforestation issues involved, he states. By law, these plantations cannot be enlarged, so every tree cut down has to be replaced by a new sapling.)

Currently, some of the biomass waste from South African forestry is pelletised and burnt for energy. But this biomass could be used as a source of feedstock for many other purposes, he highlights. Trees contain chemicals. By using a technique called biorefining, these chemicals can be extracted from the biomass waste and used for a wide variety of purposes. What remains can then be burned for energy. “We can process other biomass as well, including such things as chicken feathers,” he states. (Chicken feathers can be a source of keratin for the cosmetics industry.) To show what can be done, the CSIR, in conjunction with the DSI, has a biorefinery industry development facility in eThekwini/Durban. The facility extracts high-value materials from biological (biomass) waste.

“For example, one of the chemicals contained in trees is hemicellulose, which is a type of sugar. This can be converted into xylitol, a diabetic-friendly sweetening agent,” he says. “Currently, there is no local production of xylitol in South Africa. It is all imported and it is expensive – much more expensive than sugar. So, we’re saying, why can’t we produce xylitol here – from forestry waste material?”

Other sugars from trees can be converted into other chemicals and used to make even bioplastics. Wood biomass replaces crude oil as the feedstock for the plastics, but, otherwise, the basic process is unchanged. (Crude oil was, of course, itself originally wood biomass – millions of years ago.) Moreover, wood biomass can also be used to produce other chemicals for other purposes, as well as liquid fuels used in transport. “The idea now is that we take waste from sawmills and process it into high-value products, simultaneously solving the waste problem and creating valuable new revenue streams,” affirms Sithole.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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