Publications
South African Plastic Federation
Workshop on the future of plastic and plastic recycling
By Nirmala Nair (Director ZERI-Southern Africa)
Director, ZERI Southern Africa
24 May 2005
I am not a plastic expert by any means. The studies conducted by our global network and associated scientists are beginning to give us hope that there is a way out from the petroleum based polymers needed to manufacture plastics. They are also making it very clear through demonstration projects in Japan, Kita Kyushu Institute of Bio-Technology that we do not have to opt for natural polymers from genetically modified starch as has been the trend in the last few years in search for bio-plastics.
Current Alternatives
What we as ZERI global network has opted, is search for alternatives and support any alternative research in the field... Our alternatives are different from that being espoused by the GMO giants like Cargill and Dow. They are promoting GMO starch that consumers are not going to buy (with increasing consumer awareness ofcourse) into creation of natural polymers. There are already big projects selling natural starch based polymers without revealing the fact that these are basically derived from GMO corn, potatoes and maize. Knowingly or unknowingly we in SA are going the same route, with all our worshipping of the western paradigms ( unfortunately the discarded technologies get adopted by us natives!!!)
ZERI Alternatives
So what are our alternatives ? Our hypothesis is that, cities are not going to vanish off the planet. Our metros are already facing major landfill related problems, space, water leachate, maintenance etc etc. It is estimated that about 80% of the landfill waste is `wet waste’ organic food waste. There is no more space in any of the metros for landfills. There is a limit to how much compost we can use even with all our metro Mayors pushing for urban agriculture. Can we find an incredibly value added product using this wet waste ? Can we turn the problem of polluting cities and unsightly expensive landfill sites into an opportunity to pave the way to the creation of Bio-Cities in South Africa.. Bio-cities with no emissions, no landfill site and taking advantage of carbon credits and Kyoto Protocol in a very creative way???
Poly Lactic Acid from Kitchen Waste
The wet waste can be effectively turned into natural polymers through saccharification.
100kg saccharified liquid produces 5kg poly-lactic acid- basis for the natural polymer. The residues from both processes have added value for various other secondary produces.
We are challenging the bio-processing units of various universities and other research arms from science and technology to begin exploring this avenue. With all our expertise in distillation and fermentation technology – all we need is a group of systems savy bio-processing engineers and systems thinkers working with local metro councils and waste departments in re-engineering the existing waste collection system into one of the creation of decentralized collection and off-load points that are plugged into the decentralized industrial eco-parks.
Systems based Process
Creation of zero-waste bio-cities is possible with a vision to reengineer and redesign current models. Our current models most often are arriving from elsewhere where it has already become redundant and obsolete. African countries are becoming a dumping ground of technologies dumped from the west. Most of the time these technologies arrive couched in development aid and consultants who are very narrow minded technical experts unable to see the bigger picture.
What we propose is the creation of a closed loop decentralized industrial eco- parks where all related-multiple projects happen simultaneously. These decentralized models of industrial eco-parks focusing on waste separation and regeneration of value added services and products will become an integral part of new bio-cities designed on zero emissions principles. Because these will have aesthetic and communal livelihood strategies incorporated, every decentralized eco-parks will serve its immediate community. These decentralized eco-parks will take care of everything produced locally and waste generated will become part of a continuous regenerative process taking care of the communities needs in a cyclical fashion. Therefore it becomes possible to create these within residential areas integrating living-working-communing sustainably as a practical possibility, cutting out transportation, refrigeration and procurement process to zero. © 2005
Input by Nirmala Nair
Director ZERISA
