Time to include industrial waste in Africa’s circular economy?
In recent decades, the world has experienced significant economic growth especially in developing countries. But with an adversely changing climate and a desperate scramble for fast depleting resources, there’s an urgency to explore alternative methods to pursue development.
This is where the recycling, upcycling and the notion of circularity comes into picture. These approaches not only reduce wastage but also lessen burden on the natural resources.
That’s why the concept of circularity, which aims at ensuring a ‘cradle to cradle’ approach instead of a ‘cradle to grave’ paradigm, has become the global agenda.
Now, with African nations registering exponential growth, the continent has become a major hub for industrialisation.
While industrialisation has been considered as an important component for the economic development of a country, it is also one of the major consumers of natural resources, sources of carbon emissions and generators of significant quantities of waste — both hazardous and non-hazardous.
Africa’s industries at a glance
Africa, the second largest continent, has all kinds of industrial sectors like sugar, textile, mining, cement, brewery, pulp and paper, steel, and metal foundries among others. These industries generate a diverse range of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes.
The wastes from these industries including but not limited to slag, fly ash, plastic, electronics and paper can easily be recycled into the system. But in the absence of widespread recycling practices, these wastes are dumped into landfills.
This inappropriate dumping leads to release of toxic metals in river and groundwater affecting both environment and human health.
The prime reason for this negligence is the unavailability of inventory with the environmental regulators on the type and quantum of waste generated in the country.
Availability of data on the type and quantity of waste is the first step on the path of including industrial waste into circularity and in the absence of such information, the goal of circularity will be difficult to achieve.
Africa, being a fast growing continent, needs an urgent focus towards developing a roadmap for industrial symbiosis on waste utilisation.
What needs to be done?
Inventorisation and quantification of waste (sector-wise):
The African countries, as a first step, need to develop an inventory for the type of waste generated from each industrial sector in their country. Once the type of waste is identified, its quantification needs to be done.
Quantification is required to determine the quantum of particular waste available for recycle and reuse. Ideally, this information should be available from environmental audit reports submitted by the industries, however, since the African countries are currently having a weak audit system this method will require more time.
In the meantime, the regulators should develop a ‘rule of thumb’ for determining the quantity of waste from each type of industry depending on the production capacity.
Mapping of waste utilisation areas
After the inventorisation and quantification is done, the next step requires identifying industrial symbiosis for use of waste- a mutually beneficial relationship between different industries in which one industry’s by-product or secondary resource (waste) becomes the raw material of another.
Ghana is one of the countries who has undergone such practice a few years back and other countries need to follow the similar exercise.
Ghana, in 2018, concluded a two-year project conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) during which 135 synergies were identified from 46 waste streams of 26 industrial sectors.
These synergies included waste streams of plastic, biomass/wood waste, paper/cardboard and scrap metal. Through this project, the country diverted 98 million tonnes of waste from landfills and saved 804 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Policy Interventions
There is a need to develop policies that support and promote waste circularity. The countries should conduct pilot projects showcasing the possibility of circularity for certain waste and incentivize the industries practising waste circularity in terms of tax exemption or other incentives on collection and transportation costs.
“African countries have high potential in terms of waste circularity and few countries have already initiated efforts in this direction. Enhancing industrial waste circularity will not only result in improved resource efficiency but also aid in reduced overall GHG [greenhouse gases] emissions,” Nivit Kumar Yadav, Director, Industrial Pollution, at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment said.
“This approach will also benefit in achieving the net zero targets and SDG goals for the countries,” he added.