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- There may be a new solution for plastic waste from chip packets and polystyrene.
- A global company with a plant in Cape Town, is able to turn chip packets and car bumpers into useful construction material for houses.
- World Environment Day this year is focused on beating plastic pollution and SA is part of negotiations to develop a legally binding treaty to achieve that.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
Chip packets and polystyrene, which are not popular recycling materials and are often found dumped, may have a second life as useful construction material.
"Chip packets are my worst, because nobody wants chip packets," said Forestry Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.
The minister voiced her frustration over plastic pollution, on Monday, World Environment Day.
Creecy marked the global event, which this year is focused on beating plastic pollution, by visiting two recycling plants in Cape Town that are doing just that.
One of the plants, CRDC SA, in particular, is "not fussy" about the waste it processes, explained Creecy.
"They take chip packets. They take polystyrene. As a person who has done many, many cleanups - polystyrene and chip packets are the things you normally find dumped," said Creecy.
Most recyclers opt for bottles or high-value plastic, and are not interested in polystyrene or chip packets, said Creecy.
CRDC SA, based in Blackheath industrial area in Cape Town, has been operating in South Africa for four years and is part of a global company founded in Costa Rica. It collects non-recyclable waste from factories and waste management companies. Through a patented process it shreds or breaks down the waste before turning it into a new, concrete product known as Resin8. This can be used to make bricks, building blocks, or paving stones.
The concrete products, like building blocks, have been used to build hundreds of houses locally and internationally, said Brett Jordaan, director at CRDC SA and chief commercial officer for CRDC Global. Jordaan explained that the recycling plant could also process car bumpers, traditional waste plastics from households and polyvinyl flooring.
From its early days, it would be able to process 500kg of waste a day, to the current 1.5 tonnes per hour. The facility – when operating at full scale, could process 610 tonnes of plastic a month.
The plant employs 20 people directly, but considering the waste collectors or reclaimers this includes more than 500 people.
But before the waste gets to a plant like CDRC's, it has be sorted.
This is the work of plants like Waste Want, in Kraaifontein. Waste Want works in partnership with the City of Cape Town to collect waste from households, explained co-founder Lydia Anderson-Jardine. The plant separates and bales waste into different types, for example, tin, plastic or paper.
The plant employs about 200 people and on average, diverts about 1 500 tonnes of waste from landfills per month, said Anderson-Jardine.
The World Wild Life Fund for Nature in South Africa estimates that over 2.5 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually, and about half of this is not disposed of or leaches into the environment as pollution.
This pollution impacts water supply, wetlands, and land management and ultimately ends up in the sea, which affects the fishing industry, said Creecy.
South Africa, along with 175 nations, have committed to a call by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to end plastic pollution, through an internationally legally binding treaty. The negotiations for this agreement are to be concluded by 2024, and then we may have a legally binding instrument, said Creecy.
READ | UN lays out blueprint to reduce plastic waste 80% by 2040
Nelson Muffuh, UN resident coordinator in South Africa, who was also at the site visits, said South Africa's efforts are part of a global push to come up with a legally binding treaty to regulate and stop the use of plastic.
He shared that about 90% of plastic waste in Africa ends up in landfills and waterways, and only 4% is recycled. Stopping plastic pollution by encouraging recycling will not only have environmental benefits but also will create jobs and economic benefits, he explained.
