Construction World March 2015

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ON WASTE The way forward The purpose of the National Environmental Management Waste Act 2008 (NEMWA),

The case for fly ash An important debate in the building mate- rials industry is whether fly ash should be classified as a ‘waste’, and whether it should be regarded as hazardous. It would seem to be totally unwarranted to classify it as ‘waste’ when Ash Resources, South Africa’s leading manufacturer and supplier of fly ash products, pioneered the recycling of a material that was originally considered a waste product of the Eskom coal-fired power stations. For over 30 years, the company has been processing it into value-added cementitious building materials for the local cement and concrete industries. Ash Resources has also developed fine fly ash inert fillers for plastics and rubber prod- ucts, while the company’s ongoing research is opening up an exciting range of applica- tions in mining and waste management. Today, the local demand for processed fly ash products exceeds 2 million tons a year. The company operates five plants that receive the raw fly ash through direct links to Eskom’s coal-fired power stations and process it into fit-for purpose products, which are sold in compliance with tech- nical specifications SANS 50450 and SANS 197. Fly ash is virtually zero carbon rated and its development by Ash Resources is playing an important ‘green engineering’ role in South Africa’s cementitious building materials by reducing process and energy input, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and reducing the consumption of non-renew- able natural resources. During the last 10 years, the use of Ash Resources’ products by the local cement, readymix and construction industries has saved over 17,5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the coal-fired power stations are continuing to dispose of a significant amount of ash material on landfill sites, which would logically be classified as ‘waste’. The health issue “South Africa is taking a different approach to categorising fly ash,” comments Professor Richard Kruger, President of the SA Coal Ash Association. While obviously benefiting from monitoring the overseas regulatory devel- opments, the Department of Environmental Affairs is not trying to emulate Europe or the USA. In the USA, fly ash was never referred to as ‘waste’ but rather as a ‘by-product’ in

is to reform the law regulating waste management, in order to protect public health and the environment.

Ash Resources MD, Tshepiso Dumasi.

their Resource Conservation Recovery Act and the main concern is whether a material is hazardous or not. In Europe, the imple- mentation of the Waste Framework Direc- tive and compliance with the European Chemical Agency’s REACH criteria facilitates the categorisation of fly ash as a by-product. NEMWA excludes this option but includes the possibility of exemption for fly ash.” The trace element content of South African fly ash differs from that in the northern hemisphere and the concen- trations of many of the toxic elements (e.g. arsenic) are much lower than their counterparts elsewhere in the world. The next step The National Waste Management: Amend- ment Bill makes provision in Section 74 for the Minister to exempt or exclude any waste stream or portion of a waste stream from the definition of ‘waste’. This would seem to be a logical approach to classifying South Africa’s vitally important processed fly ash. “The Amendment Bill is definitely a step in the right direction,” says Professor Kruger. “But I believe it could still be made clearer. The Bill will now be presented to the National Council of Provinces and we await any new developments.” The role of Ash Resources “Ash Resources contributes immensely to the country through reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases,” comments Ash Resources MD, Tshepiso Dumasi. “Most importantly, the company is positively contributing to the country’s National Development Plan through employment. However, this can be accelerated if processed fly ash is exempted from NEMWA as a hazardous waste”.

Among the wide-ranging topics that NEMWA addresses is the establishment of a national waste information system and

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provision for the licensing and control of waste management activities. While society increasingly recognises the importance of promoting recovery, recycling and reuse in sustainable development, this has to be balanced against potential health issues. The National Waste Management: Amendment Bill, which was approved by Parliament on 28 February 2014, seeks to address some of the challenges of waste management by amending the definitions of ‘waste’, ‘reuse’ and ‘recovery’ to provide more clarity and certainty. While the Bill is still a ‘work in progress’, it is a significant step forward. Recognition is being given to waste that is being put to beneficial use, although the proposed regulations are still struggling to adequately address situations where material reverts to being waste, or a portion of it was never recovered and used for a value adding purpose.

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Professor Richard Kruger, president of the SA Coal Ash Association.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2015