Waste management is a key driver of a green economy

By Brian Unsted, Head of Good Spaces and Asset Management Executive at Liberty Two Degrees.

Waste mismanagement can significantly impact health and the environment in an industrial economy. The large quantities of waste currently produced, coupled with the inability to break it down efficiently, means the drive to a greener economy is progressing at a much slower pace than what is needed.

Yet waste management is one of the leading sectors expected to drive South Africa’s green economy, making efficient waste management solutions a critical imperative.

The ultimate goal is Net-Zero waste status. This means ensuring waste avoidance, resource recovery, retrieval of recyclable materials before they enter the waste stream, reusing and recycling waste products, and the treatment and disposal of these. Products should be designed with materials that can be recycled and have reuse value through the waste value chain.

The journey to Net-Zero waste - reducing, reusing, and recovering waste streams to convert them into valuable resources with zero solid waste sent to landfills is aspirational.

A mind shift is required to achieve environmental sustainability, and commitment and boldness to achieve Net Zero. There is international scientific consensus that to prevent climate change, greenhouse gas emissions need to be as close to zero as possible. Liberty Two Degrees (L2D) is doing its part to contribute to the prevention of climate change. It aims to achieve Net Zero waste readiness by the end of 2022. Through the appointment of a waste partner in 2021, L2D, the real estate investment trust (REIT), made significant improvements to its waste management practices across its portfolio. It almost doubled its waste diversion rates, increasing from 35% to 75% by weight. This equates to Brian Unsted, Asset Management Executive and Head of Good Spaces 2 393 tonnes of recycled waste and includes 314 tonnes of organic waste.

Liberty Two Degrees achieved this by implementing innovative technologies at its properties, including waste composters, recycling hubs and recycling units. Once optimal levels of recycling, composting, and waste diversion from landfill is achieved per site, alternative waste treatment processes will be used on residual waste. This includes creating a circular economy for waste through the potential use of waste-toconcrete and waste-to-energy initiatives.

We can achieve zero waste and sustainable waste management through gradual improvement in production efficiency and consumer waste awareness. The installation of reverse vending machines at shopping centres such as Sandton City provides an innovative solution for the collection of waste at source and is a way for shoppers to tangibly contribute towards recycling and diversion from landfills tangibly. It has created public awareness and has provided incentives for waste management practices.

It’s clear that waste management is critical to the global transition to a low carbon and sustainable economy that can create large numbers of green jobs across many sectors of the economy. The way waste is produced, consumed and disposed of needs to be revisited to ensure an efficient and effective transition to a sustainable green economy.

Waste management is one of the leading sectors expected to drive South Africa’s green economy, making efficient waste management solutions a critical imperative”