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Waste Management

Eden DM launches a Pilot Household Composting Project

The result of waste characterisation studies compiled of waste being transported from households and businesses in the Eden District Municipal areas, has clearly indicated that huge quantities of organic waste are being disposed of at landfill sites in the district.

Most of the landfill sites in the district are already closed or nearly reaching their maximum capacity.  Due to this, municipalities need to implement drastic waste minimisation actions to reduce waste dropped off at landfill sites which will lengthen the life expectancy of the site and also to reduce transport costs from generators to landfill.  By keeping organic waste away from landfills, the production of detrimental landfill gasses will be eliminated.

Eden District Municipality’s (Eden DM’s) Waste Management Section, in collaboration with the Waste Management Officers of the various local municipalities, identified a practical solution to minimise organic waste from households going to landfill.  On Monday, 5 February 2018, residents of the Gouritsmond community attended the launch and training session of the first Home Composting Pilot Project.  This came forth as an initiative by Cllr Thersia van Rensburg from the Hessequa Municipality and Eden DM’s Waste Management Section. Cllr Thersia van Rensburg officially opened the session, followed by Mr Morton Hubbe, District Waste Manager of Eden DM, who presented on the methods, techniques, benefits and possible expectations of the project. Mr Hubbe explained to residents that a one-on-one follow-up training session would be held with each household of the 30 participants. These participants will then all receive a composting bin and worm farm.

Eden DM launches a Pilot Household Composting Project

Considering that 30% of the normal household black bag waste contains organic waste originating from the garden and kitchen, the decision was taken to implement the Household Composting Pilot Project in the different municipal areas. Through this Project, garden and kitchen waste will be recycled into compost, using different recycling methods, such as bin -and worm composting. The compost worm castings and worm tea are then used as fertilizer in-house and for vegetable gardens.

In addition, the Eden District and Hessequa Municipal Waste Management Officers will receive monthly updates from the residents, which will enable them to monitor the progress of the project and capture data.  The duration of the pilot project will be for one year from the date of implementation, and it is envisaged that the project outcome will display to Municipal Councils that the exact quantities of organic waste can be diverted from landfills with the assistance and buy-in from normal households.  Also, to motivate Councils to extend the program to the rest of their municipal area.

It is anticipated that the next pilot project will be implemented in the Mossel Bay Municipal area during March 2018.

Swedish Delegation explores potential investment opportunities in the Eden district

A group of Sweden delegates, on Tuesday, 5 December 2017, visited the Eden District Municipality (Eden DM) satellite office in Mossel Bay, to discuss the progress of the Regional Landfill Facility that is now in the final stage until the operation.  The aim of these deliberations was to sketch a clear picture of the Landfill Facility to the visitors and unlock potential investment opportunities.

The group, together with representatives from Business Sweden (CEB, Johannesburg) and Greencape (Cape Town), South Cape Economic Partnership, as well as Eden District Municipality and Mossel Bay Municipality after the formal discussions in front of the Eden District Municipality satellite office in Mossel Bay.

Mr Morton Hubbe, Manager of District Waste Management at Eden DM, took them through the approval process followed, the layout and progress made to date with the development of the Landfill Facility. The short and long-term development and management activities at the landfill facility were also discussed with the delegation.

According to Mr Hubbe, Eden DM has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with USAID: SA LED to assist them with a study on the availability and composition of Biomass feedstock in the Eden DM area and to identify feasible and cost-effective alternatives to manage this, rather than taking it to landfill sites to be landfilled. “Problem waste lines that will be included in this study are abattoir waste, wood waste, green waste and sewage sludge,” Mr Hubbe said.

As soon as the Biomass Report is finalised and made available during February next year, these potential investors will also be allowed to examine its content, before making an informed decision on their possible future commitment towards the project.

During the discussions relating to the Eden district Regional Landfill Facility, are representatives from Cortus Energy, Ecopar and the South Cape Economic Partnership.

In a press statement issued on 7 July this year, Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Minister Anton Bredell, said that the project is a top priority because an existing contract with PetroSA, which allows municipalities to dispose waste at the PetroSA facility ends on 31 July 2018.

The delegation was represented by officials from Cortus Energy, Ecopar and Business Sweden (CEB) and  are currently visiting various organisations within the Eden district, such as MTO Forestry, PetroSA, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, SANParks, Transnet, Portnet, the National Port Authority, Airports Company of South Africa etc.  Mr. Jarrod Lyons, a  representative from Greencape (Cape Town) and Mr Shaan Padayachy from Business Sweden (Johannesburg), also accompanied the delegation throughout their itinerary, as well as officials from Eden District and Mossel Bay Municipalities. Mr Paul Hoffman, from the South Cape Economic Partnership, coordinated the visit.

Eden DM, using its mandate, will continue to engage with relevant role-players and use every single platform to address challenges relating to the finalisation of the process, to ensure that the Landfill Facility gets off the ground before its envisaged launch date.

Eden DM Recycling Mascot

Eden District Municipality has designed a recycling mascot which will be branded on all waste management and minimisation initiatives as decided by all municipalities in the district. The mascot will assist in creating awareness about waste minimisation matters and is also a means of encouraging younger generations to partake in waste minimisation.

Eden DM has procured a mascot to be used by all municipalities for any waste minimisation / management events. The mascot, Rocky (the Recycling Rooster / RRR / Alliteration Reduce Reuse Recycle) was designed with three different characters namely: ‘Cool’, ‘Superhero’ and ‘Boxer’.

Eden District Municipal Offices Recycling Programme

The Office Recycling Programme has been successfully implemented at all offices of Eden DM, in order to create waste minimisation awareness amongst employees.   A thousand cardboard recycling boxes, branded with the Eden Waste Minimisation Mascot and fifteen wheelie-bins, were procured for this programme.  These boxes were placed at all offices and emptied once a week into the wheelie-bins.

The objectives of the programme, include the following:
•    The provision of recycling receptacles at all Council offices;
•    Training of all Cleaners and responsible employees;
•    Interaction with local recycling companies; and
•    Awareness among employees about recycling.

Each office weighs and records their waste quantities on a weekly basis; these quantities will be published in Eden DM’s quarterly newsletter.  Between January 2017 and April 2017 (4 Months) a recorded 5077,5kg (5 tons) of recyclable material was recovered from Eden DM’s satellite offices in Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, George, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn, Riversdale, Albertinia and Heidelberg and Eden DM’s Head Office in George.  This is an average of 1,25 tons of waste diverted from landfill on a monthly basis.

Furthermore, the campaign is also driven with the aspiration to create awareness amongst the public that visits council’s offices, demonstrating Eden DM’s commitment towards waste minimisation by practising what they preach.

Waste Management is everybody’s business

During an Eden district wide study, it became evident that municipalities lack information, regarding the different types and volumes of waste, featured in their Integrated Waste Management Plans. For this reason, Eden District Municipality (Eden DM) took the initiative, to procure the necessary equipment required to conduct waste characterisation studies. This was done with the prize money received from the Greenest District Municipality Awards that was won in 2015.

From August 2015, the Eden DM Waste Management Section conducted waste characterisation studies in the Bitou-, Mossel Bay-, Knysna-, Hessequa- and Oudtshoorn Municipal areas. The reason behind these studies has been to obtain and provide a breakdown of the composition and quantities of household and commercial waste collected from different outlets and disposed at landfill sites. This information is needed to ensure proper integrated waste management planning.

A representative sample, relative to the total number of households per sub-area, was collected, identified, sorted and weighed. The waste was categorised into 15 different waste types, namely:

  • Soft plastics;
  • Hard plastics;
  • Paper;
  • Cardboard;
  • Glass metal;
  • Food waste;
  • Garden waste;
  • Textiles;
  • Wood waste;
  • Inert waste;
  • Nappies;
  • E-waste; and
  • Hazardous waste and more (waste that does not fall under the aforementioned categories).

The results obtained from the different sub-areas within the different municipalities, illustrated different trends in waste generation. These trends will be significant in identifying and prioritising the type of waste minimisation areas and management initiatives to implement in the various sub-areas. For example, home composting initiatives should be implemented in the sub-areas where garden waste was the most prominent component of the waste sampled.

A waste characterisation study is planned for early 2017 in the George Municipal area; whereafter similar studies will follow in the other local municipalities within the Eden district. The abovementioned studies will be performed on a bi-annual basis, in order to determine the seasonal waste generation trends. The majority of waste currently reaching the landfill site are recyclable materials.