Green Economy Journal Issue 56

WASTE
Rethinking hazardous waste management
The 11-million elephants in the room
Research shows that 92.7% of hazardous waste is landfilled in South Africa. That is a staggering
48-million tons of hazardous waste or the equivalent of 11-million elephants. Eleven-million
elephants stacked on top of each other would create a tower that is 36 410km high – almost long
enough to reach around the entire earth.
According to the South Africa State of Waste Report 2018,
South Africa generates more than 107.7-million tons of
waste annually. Of this, 48% or 52-million tons, is classified
as hazardous waste that may have a detrimental impact on health
and the environment. A total of 92.7% of this is landfilled every year.
To compound matters, South Africa’s dumping grounds are filling
up at an alarming rate with some large sites having less than three
years of airspace available, says Leon Grobbelaar, the president of
the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa. Engineering
News has recently reported that Johannesburg, Tshwane and Cape
Town each have less than 10 years of landfill life left.
Legislators have identified this as a fundamental issue that needs
to be resolved, and as such the South Africa Waste Management
Strategy 2020 states: “Prevent waste, and where waste cannot be
prevented, ensure 40% of waste is diverted from landfill within five
years; 55% within 10 years; and at least 70% within 15 years leading
to zero waste going to landfill”. A tall order, but a crucial one for our
country and environment.
Waste that is not taken to landfill poses possible environmental and
human health risks and disasters – the tragic tailings dam failure in
Jagersfontein (2022) is an example. In a recent Reuters report, it is noted
that South Africa has the highest number of high-risk tailings dams (79)
in the 10 countries that were profiled. Quartz Africa asserts that “there
are growing calls for the cleaning up of high-risk tailings dams so that
the waste can be re-processed and used to fill up mined out operations,
thereby reducing environmental hazards.” Mariette Liefferink from
Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) warns that in terms of
ecological risk, the issue of mining waste is widely recognised as second
only to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion.
A high degree of effort is required to mitigate environmental risks
posed by hazardous waste, no matter where that waste currently
exists. For this to be achieved requires industry to pursue zero waste
Johannesburg, Tshwane and
Cape Town each have less than 10 years
of landfill life left.
aggressively with landfill technologies from both sides of the buyersupplier
relationship.
TREATMENT OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
There are various ways of treating different types of hazardous waste
including but not limited to biological, physical/chemical, thermal or
disposal. The type of treatment depends highly on the contaminant
and the desired result, as not all waste streams are susceptible to
all treatment methods. Other factors that influence the choice of
treatment method include the conditions of contamination and
surroundings, type of remediation required (destruction, separation
or containment), operational intensity, capital requirements, relative
costs, reliability of outcome and the time window.
Treating hazardous waste is by no means an easy feat, and much
more work is needed to develop solutions for waste streams that
currently have no treatment options. Combining +50-year-old principles
with innovative product technology, Bemical delivers solutions to
hazardous waste streams that are based on the most efficient methods
in biological and physical/chemical treatment. Waste stream examples
that have been managed via these treatment methods include
hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOC), heavy metals such
as lead, arsenic and chromium, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH),
manufactured gas plant waste (including cyanide, naphthalene, total
petroleum hydrocarbons, arsenic), chromium ore process residual,
asbestos as well as platinum group metal tailings and sewage.
Bemical’s leadership team includes a head of technical and project
operations, an expert with over 20 years of global remediation
experience, as well as a chief science officer serving as an associate
professor with a distinguished academic track record in chemical
and environmental engineering. Bemical has partnered with the
Department of Engineering at the University of Pretoria to conduct
further research into industry-leading remediation products to better
serve the variety of waste streams available.
Contact Jaco Nel at admin@bemical.com or +27 83 363 0315.
www.bemical.com
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