SUITABLE WASTE TO ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IN SOUTH AFRICA - WAITING FOR LAUNCH

摘要

Landfills are the most widely utilised method for the disposing of solid wastes in South Africa and Africa as a whole. Indeed, many African landfills may be more accurately described as dumps. However, the standard of some landfills in South Africa far exceeds the international norm for best practice. Landfills in South Africa currently serve the public's duty as the most economically-appropriate option for the disposal of wastes and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Certainly, it is widely known that most alternative waste management options, such as anaerobic digestion (AD), incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, composting, waste recovery and recycling, generally rely on a landfill for the final disposal of their by-products and process residues. Energy from waste is an attractive concept for SA and the advantages may appear ubiquitous, but financial duty presents a wakeup call to the waste and energy industries.