Aspasa CDE
GreenCape
An elevated view of the loading shovel feeding the C & D waste recycling plant.
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CDE demand for processed builders’ rubble in the construction industry, with the rising price of virgin material cited as one of the main market drivers.
“ We provide industry insights and support, and we work on reducing legislative barriers and supporting any market developments,” says Dr Kirsten Barnes, senior waste economy analyst at GreenCape.“ There are a number of angles we’ re working on with regard to builders’ rubble. We are particularly targeting builders’ rubble reuse in road construction, as this is where we see the highest impact in terms of jobs created and material diverted from landfill. While there is funding available to help bring in more high-tech machinery, the industry isn’ t currently able to support that sort of investment, so we’ re looking at relatively small operations, often with static crushers and sometimes with added mobile crushers.”
According to Barnes, these smaller operations also tend to have quite a high focus on labour, which is another advantage in a country with very high unemployment. While there are plants and processes in use overseas that allow for the processing of C & D waste with minimal labour, South Africa tends to make use of more labour-intensive processes.“ The kind of labour-intensive quality control processes that are more the norm in South Africa would be great to encourage and to protect, as this will give us higher quality products but with labour absorptive capacity within the industry, which is a really good thing,” says Barnes.
However, more advanced operations can also ensure a safer working environment
Feed material being loaded into the R2500 primary screening unit at the CANDY Project’ s recycling facility in Germany.
and better quality work, as well as creating opportunities for higher-level jobs.
On-site crushing of C & D waste using mobile crushing and screening equipment is particularly popular in Cape Town because of high transport costs, costs for mixed loads of C & D waste and long turnaround times for trucks disposing of the material. According to the GreenCape industry brief, the current crushing capacity in the City of Cape Town alone is over 52 000m 3 per month( and is expected to increase by an additional 40 000m 3 per month over the next few years), based on a survey of five major crushers. The industry currently provides 9.7 jobs per 1 000m 3 processed, with crushers producing high-quality products averaging up to 30 jobs per 1 000m 3.
Driving the market
There is no particular industry body that governs and oversees the handling, treatment and disposal of builders’ rubble. GreenCape’ s industry brief identifies rising virgin material prices, material transportation cost, regulation of waste flows and increasing disposal costs due to limited landfill airspace as current drivers of the builders’ rubble economy.
Barnes says that nationally, other than the requirement to reduce waste to landfill, which is included in the National Environmental Management: Waste Act( Act 59 of 2008), there’ s no strict legislative bans or diversion targets related to C & D waste.“ However,” she adds,“ we expect that to change, because both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government( Department of Environmental Affairs and
Robyn Grimsley
1. Nico Pienaar, director of the Aggregate and Sand Producers Association of Southern Africa( Aspasa).
2. Dr Kirsten Barnes is a senior waste economy analyst at GreenCape, a non-profit organisation established in 2010 by the Western Cape Government to support the development of the green economy in the region.
3. Nicolan Govender is the regional manager for sub-Saharan Africa of global wet processing equipment company CDE.
24 _ QUARRY SA | MAY 2017