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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2015
Among the wide-ranging topics
that NEMWA addresses is the
establishment
of
a
national
waste information system and
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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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
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”.
ON WASTE
The way forward
The purpose of the National
Environmental Management
Waste Act 2008 (NEMWA),
is to reform the law regulating
waste management, in order
to protect public health and
the environment.
Professor Richard Kruger, president of the SA
Coal Ash Association.
Ash Resources MD, Tshepiso Dumasi.