In Cape Town, for example, landfill sites received an estimated volume of 2.37 million tons of waste in 2007. By 2010 input had risen to more than 2.67 million tons, a gain of 12.7% in three years.
This magnitude in growth is putting considerable pressure on the city's three landfills - Coastal Park, Vissershok and Bellville South which already constitute a combined area of approximately 252ha. Estimates are that Coastal Park will reach maximum capacity by 2027; Vissershok, when extended, will have an additional lifespan of between six to nine years, while Bellville South's closure is planned for 2018.
The Western Cape government in its 2013 State of the Environment report included a chapter on waste management and while it outlined the considerable ecological challenges provoked by waste within the province, it also proposed some very positive options.
The report stated that while waste was traditionally regarded as something to be discarded, opinion has moved forward. It is increasingly being considered a potential resource and it is now believed that one of the keys to sustainable economic growth is the ability to recover and recycle materials, creating second generation products without draining finite resources.
This proposition gains considerable weight when looking at 2010 statistics which reveal that nearly 70% of recorded waste in the area is made up of building rubble, glass and garden waste, all of which is easily recyclable and reusable.
Pilot Crushtec International national sales manager, Nicolan Govender, believes that the swing toward recycling is well under way in the Western Cape with a number of customers having purchased crushing and screening equipment for the processing of large volumes of rubble, organic material and glass.
A prime example is Philippi-based customer Donadio Plant Hire, which recently took delivery of a Rubble Master RM70GO! horizontal shaft impact crusher. The Rubble Master is fully capable of handling all major waste categories, including building rubble, concrete, asphalt, organic materials and glass at a rate of up to 120 tons per hour.
Govender says Donadio sees the recycling industry as a genuine growth opportunity, an opinion shared by another customer of Pilot Crushtec International, who were the second in the Western Cape to invest in a Rubble Master.
This company is no stranger to recycling and has extracted and processed more than 10 million m3 of organic waste from the region's landfills using Pilot Crushtec International screens. Their contract with the municipality included the processing of building rubble across several sites for which they opted for a Rubble Master RM70GO!
"We are going to see a situation where old buildings which are being demolished to make way for new structures will be recycled on site and converted back into usable building material," says Govender.
"A customer in the glass industry is using a plant comprising a hopper, horizontal shaft impact crusher and screen to process waste glass from its own processes as well as to dispose of off-cuts from its customers. None of this product is dumped but rather recycled into a variety of construction materials, including bricks and aggregate," says Govender.
