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Africa’s industries generate millions of tonnes of waste every year and is responsible for 30-40 per cent of the continent’s greenhouse gas emissions. The volume of emissions is likely to double by 2050 in a business-as-usual scenario.
Circularity is the answer. Instead of dumping or burning this waste, it can be used as a resource in manufacturing, that can not only boost growth but significantly cut down emissions.
Complete recycling of just four types of industrial waste — lead acid battery, glass waste, cashew waste and e-waste — could reduce 8.7 million tonne of carbon dioxide, which is a 2 per cent reduction in total GHG emissions from the continent, a new report by Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) indicated.
By using industrial waste, Africa's indsutries can lower raw material costs, improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions and create job opportunities, said Ishita Garg, programme manager, industrial pollution, CSE.
Yet, in efforts to faciliate circular economy in the continent, industrial waste is often overshadowed by its more popular cousins — household waste and plastic.
Industrial waste needs to be treated as a development opportunity, the report emphasised. It demonstrated how circular solutions can drive both economic growth and environmental sustainability, Garg said, speaking at a pan-Africa workshop jointly hosted by CSE and Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in Lagos.
For industrial circularity to become a reality, regulatory frameworks need to evolve, said Christopher N Beka, director-inspection and enforcement, NESREA said representing Innocent Barikor, director-general of the agency.
Apart from trying to identify a policy framework, regulators from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania attending the workshop discussed ways to encourage industry participation and create financial incentives to enhance circularity across industrial sectors.
The path to industrial circularity is not without hurdles. Absence of comprehensive waste inventories on the type and quantity of industrial waste generated is a major roadblock, according to the authors of the report.
Numerous African nations undergoing rapic industrialisation lack data on industrial waste generation, including statistics on recycling, reuse and disposal, they flagged. This absence of information makes it challenging to monitor material flows and pinpoint opportunities for circularity. “The absence of such information has resulted in dumping of waste like slag, fly ash, plastic, glass, paper, etc which are otherwise easily recyclable,” said Garg.
Limited financial support for circular practices, insufficient industrial waste management infrastructure and gaps in the policy framework also hinder large-scale adoption of the practice. The challenge is compunded by an absence of industrial waste targeted goals and actions in circular economy polices of many African countries. The authors of the CSE report called for urgent attention to these gaps.
The researchers prepared a prescription for implementation of circularity in the continent. Some of them include:
• Create a national waste inventory to track industrial waste generation, recycling, and disposal.
• Develop waste mapping and cross-industry waste exchange to repurpose waste as raw materials.
• Develop and implement industrial waste-focused policies that establish sector-specific guidelines.
• Introduce targeted financial mechanisms and invest in recycling infrastructure to make circular waste practices viable and scalable.
Provide technical guidance and capacity building to help industries transition to circularity.
Amid the challenges, the report recorded solutions successfully adopted by some African countries. Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana have already developed their roadmaps while Uganda, Chad and other African countries are in the process of drafting theirs, according to the report. “However, these documents need to be publicly available and widely accessible as it will foster cross-country knowledge sharing, allowing countries to learn from each other’s success and failures,” the authors of the report suggested.