Categories of Recyclables

8.
Categories of Recyclables

1. Plastics
The vast difference in the types of plastic materials that can be recycled is the largest barrier to the recycler. While all plastic can in general be recycled, the degree of contamination and the receipt of mixed plastic types at the washing and processing plants is an important complicating factor. Plastic waste is normally recycled by melting it down and extruding it into strings that are eventually cut up in pellets that are bought and used (in combination with virgin plastic pellets) by the local plastic converter industry. In some cases, local plastic waste materials are also recycled (by injection moulding) into items such as plastic pegs and cloth hangers.

2. Paper
According to a recent study (done for the year 2002 by the Packaging Council of South Africa (PACSA) (ref 8-7)) 922 000 tons of paper are reprocessed each year, giving South Africa a 52% recovery rate. This compares favourably with a world average of 47%. In Germany, where there is recovery legislation, the rate is more than 70%. The rates in the UK and US are about 45%.

3. Glass
In the glass recycling industry the strategy to recover waste glass is focused primarily towards providing igloos and glass banks in specific areas such as in schools and in community or Council operated sorting stations and drop off sites.

The current production volume of the Consol Glass plant in Cape Town stands currently at about 1400 tons per month. As this is the only glass smelter situated in Cape Town and since the transport or shipping of glass to another smelter is not economically viable it can be safely assumed that all the glass recovered and collected in Cape Town is actually processed in that smelter (in fact 70% of all the glass waste in the Western Cape gets recycled at the Consol plant in Cape Town). About 40 % of the glass recycled comes straight from bottle filling companies such as Coca Cola, South African Breweries etc. with the remaining 60% coming from post-consumer sources. Consol is currently significantly expanding the recycling of glass bottles in Cape Town and according to Consol the glass recycling volumes in Cape Town increased by about 50% in the last 8 months.

4. Beverage Cans
Approximately 4 879 tons of beverage cans have been recycled in the Western Cape over a 12 month period. It was estimated that 10% (450 to 500 tons) of this figure was received from outside the City of Cape Town. The prices paid for the recycled beverage cans are largely dependent on whether or not the collector has the transport to drop off the cans at the depot.

5. Ferrous and Non ferrous metals
The selection of these materials for recycling is mostly based purely on visual identification and hand or bulk sorting.

6. Oil Recycling
There are two main collectors of spent oil in Cape Town: Oilkol and Fuel Firing Systems (FFS) Refiners. Oilkol collects used oil on behalf of the Rose Foundation. This Foundation was formed by 12 national members from the lubricating industry who, on a voluntary basis, donate 9c for each litre of oil sold in order to finance the work of the Oilkol. The Rose Foundation, Oilkol collects about six million litres of used motor oil in Cape Town alone. All oil is sold to FFS who reprocess this oil waste to industrial fuel oil that is utilized for example as an energy source for cement kilns. Currently the oil recycling business in Cape Town provides about 20-30 jobs.

7. Electronic Waste
Present electronic waste types and volumes disposed of in Cape Town are largely unknown as no quantitative or qualitative research studies have ever been done on that subject. In a recent local workshop that was run by the Swiss Government organisation EMPA a first attempt was made to get local stakeholders together in order to assess the possible magnitude of the local e-waste problem. Types of ewaste identified through representatives from industry, commerce, private waste companies and local e-waste recyclers included predominantly items such as obsolete, broken or redundant: computer and other IT equipment, consumer electronics (such as cell phones, TVs, video players, stereo hi-fi systems etc and white goods (e.g. kitchen appliances -stoves, microwaves etc). Sources of e-waste are coming either directly from industries (e.g. stock of outdated appliance designs) or to a smaller degree from the households. The full lifecycle of most e-waste items is unknown but it is estimated that the large majority of e-waste items ends up at general waste landfill sites and to some degree (mostly from large industrial waste sources) at Vissershok where they are co-disposed. The origin of most e-waste items comes from outside of South Africa as most electronic products are imported by South Africa.

The City of Cape Town has over the past two years been chipping all green waste and had the chipped material sold to private compost manufacturers, thereby saving landfill airspace. This resulted in a 25% diversion of green waste from landfill. Other initiatives also included pilot projects in crushing of builders’ rubble, which could be reused in the industry. Despite all of the above, there is still an increasing amount of waste landfilled.

POLLUTION NEWS
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Sumber:
Core Notes for Module 6 (Elective) of the Course
“Environmental Engineering – Sustainable Development in Coastal Areas”
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Available to Distance Learners on www.dlist-benguela.org