Making plastic bricks while benefitting local communities
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) and the Cape Town private sector have collaborated to turn plastic waste into a thriving recycling project to keep the environment clean and create jobs for locals in economically depressed communities. In Khayelitsha, the biggest informal settlement in the Western Cape, the recycled plastic waste is converted into plastic bricks to build homes.
Harmful impact on marine life
According to the World Wildlife Fund, South Africa (SA) generates an estimated 2.4 million tonnes of plastic waste every year and only 14% is recycled. Most of this plastic finds its way into rivers and beaches cross the country while landfills have reached maximum capacity. Environmentalists had proved that plastic is extremely destructive to both environment and marine life as it does not decompose, but releases tonnes of toxins that seep into the ground and even affect underground water. Marine animals are particularly prone to the effects of plastic pollution, mistaking it for food and swallowing it, resulting in starvation and death while others become entangled and drown.
Incentivising pupils
This project is specifically targeting learners from no-fee schools to collect plastic waste from their schools, households and neighbourhoods. This has seen an increase in the formation of recycling hubs at most schools which employ formal and informal waste collectors from within the community. To date, the project has collected more than 16 000kg of plastic waste. DEADP’s director of sustainability, Ron Mukanya, said apart from promoting recycling, they also want to influence behaviour change among pupils and communities to see waste as a resource. “We’re in close to 20 000 homes; that’s just by virtue of the number of learners we are currently reaching. We’re looking to double that over the next twelve months,” he said.
Bag That Builds Recovery Programme
One of the organisations involved in the initiative is the Centre for Regenerative Design and Collaboration (CRDC). The company collects waste from schools as part of its “Bag That Builds” plastic recovery programme. The plastic undergoes a process at its facility in Blackheath, to convert it into a fine dust called RESIN8, a key ingredient to make bricks, pipes, pavers and kerbstones. According to Abraham Avenant, CRDC’s chief executive officer, RESIN8 does not only represent a breakthrough, but is also gaining popularitywithin the construction industry. “Based on a CRDC study, if the world as a whole were to use just 2.8% RESIN8 in all concrete products, the planet’s plastic pollution problem could be solved.”
Environmental impact of quarrying
The CRDC plant has capacity to process 610 tonnes of plastic a month when operating at full scale. Avenant said they have already employed 20 people with 500 more benefitting as partnered waste collectors and reclaimers. Bags of RESIN8 end up at a manufacturing facility in Eerste River at Inca Concrete where it is turned into a variety of building products as substitutes for quarried and crushed materials. In addition to recycling waste plastic, this process also mitigates the negative environmental impact of quarrying. CRDC has collected more than 9 600kg of plastic waste which can be turned into 124 000 plastic bricks.
Townships Benefit from Alliance
According to the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which has partnered with CRDC’s in the pilot programme, concrete products made with RESIN8 can be up to 15% lighter. To date, concrete blocks have been used to build homes in Ilitha Park in Khayelitsha by construction company, Bitprop.
Bitprop began using concrete products made with RESIN8 in 2022, currently accounting for about 70% of homes under construction. Bitprop architect, Tashriq Abrahams, said “the construction phase is about 10 to 12 weeks [and] on every project, we employ 30 to 50 people all from within the community”, adding that “all our materials are also locally sourced and that way, we keep money in the township economy.”
