Heritage Cases

USE-IT is a Non-Profit Organisation established as a Section 21 Company in July 2009, through the eThekwini Municipality’s Economic Development Unit. USE-IT was established with primary funding by the municipality and mandated with the task of establishing a value-chain in waste beneficiation that would create economic benefits for the city and create green jobs whilst increasing diversion of waste from landfill. Use-It has proposed the development of a Waste Recycling and Beneficiation Centre. The site is located in outer west region eThekwini Municipality in Ward 91, within Mpumalanga F Township. The proposed development includes the establishment of warehouse and incubator facilities that will help to create entrepreneurial opportunities for the community through up-cycling and recycling of selected waste materials. Before construction and operations of the waste recycling and beneficiation centre may commence, a waste management license is required from the Department Environmental Affairs (DEA), in compliance with the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008 (Act 59 of 2008) and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations of 2010. In order to obtain this license a Basic Assessment is currently being undertaken by Enviroedge. Use-IT has proposed the development of a Waste Recycling and Beneficiation Centre, located on Erf 2, Erf 3 Erf 14 and Erf 16 in Mpumalanga F Township. An initial application for a Waste Management Licence was lodged with the Department of Environmental Affairs and a Licence was in fact issued on the 31/10/2013 (Licence number: 12/9/11/L1119/4) for the previous site. The proposed facility was to be located on Erf 24, 25 and 26 of Mpumalanga F, however, the site gradient rendered the required earthworks component too costly. Hence, a new alternative site for the facility has been proposed. The proposed new alternative site is located 120 metres to the west of the previous site on Portions 2, 3,14 and 16 of Mpumalanga F. The facility is designed to accept specific waste streams and address primary or secondary beneficiation as opposed to a simple recycling depot or buy-back centre. The proposed development includes the establishment of incubator and training facilities that will help to create entrepreneurial opportunities for the community through up-cycling and recycling of selected waste materials. The selected waste types include plastic, glass, builders rubble, organic and electronic waste (e-waste). The proposed Mpumalanga Waste Recycling and Beneficiation Centre infrastructure includes the establishment of offices, training areas, a reception area, a product show room within the administrative buildings, six incubator areas and warehouses, training facilities, ablutions as well as processing areas for glass, plastic and e-waste recycling. The facility would also include a compressed earth block yard and an e-waste processing centre. The centre has been planned and designed to act as a central site where the different waste streams can be recycled and then to act as a driver for local job creation and also to help reduce the volume of waste going to landfill. The waste beneficiation centre will incorporate a suite of green building design concepts such as, rain water harvesting, utilising recycled plastic roof tiles, compressed earth block buildings, solar water heaters and panels. This would provide a working example of how the various green building components and concepts can be successfully incorporated into a functional building design to obtain tangible results and benefits. The process entails obtaining selected waste materials from selected sources and the storage of this material in the appropriate collection warehouse facilities, from where they would then be utilised for up-cycling or recycling. Some opportunities identified for up-cycling and recycling thus far include: restoration of e-waste items where possible, composting of organic waste, the manufacturing of roof tiles from e-waste, beads from plastic waste, and manufacturing building blocks from builders rubble . The location for the proposed development can be found at 29°48'47.56"S 30°38'43.11"E.