The City of Johannesburg is planning to build an incinerator plant to burn the waste produced in the municipality and also generate electricity as it runs out of space for landfill sites.
Details of the introduction of alternative waste management technologies were revealed on Wednesday at the Joburg Theatre in Braamfontein.
Barney Taljaard, general manager at the City of Joburg’s waste management utility Pikitup, said the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) does not want new landfill sites.
“They want to construct an incinerator plant that burns the waste and also in the same vein it basically generates electricity,” he said. Taljaard described the construction of the incinerator plant as a massive project.
He added that the GDARD wants municipalities to move away from landfill sites as they produce gas, which is very bad for the environment.
Taljaard said the City of Joburg needs to move away from these practices towards recycling initiatives and also divert waste from landfill sites.
According to Taljaard, among Pikitup’s key performance indicators were targets on how to divert green and dry waste, bio-waste digesters and how to generate revenue from the gas emitted by landfill sites.
“There is land adjacent to our current landfill sites on the same properties, we are also increasing our landfill airspace by developing and building new sites on the land that is adjacent to the Robertsham landfill site as well as the Ennerdale landfill site.
“Those are capital, construction projects that are earmarked towards addressing the landfill airspace issue,” he explained.
Taljaard said the municipality was running out of landfill airspace, which is a challenge to Pikitup, and an issue that requires attention in the next five years.
From July 1, the City of Joburg will introduce its new tariffs, which finance MMC Margaret Arnolds described as moderate, with property rates set to increase by 4.6% – one of the lowest compared to the seven other metropolitan municipalities.
The city’s deputy director for policy and revenue enhancement, Veli Hlophe, said the tariffs were set taking into account the prevailing economic conditions but also considering that metros carry huge debt.
“If we don’t increase tariffs, would the city be able to function as it is now?” he asked.
Hlophe stated that the process of setting tariffs also took into account local government inflation.
Electricity will increase by 12.74% but is expected to be finalised by the National Energy Regulator of SA, according to City Power’s Frank Hinda.
The contentious R200 surcharge for residential prepaid customers will remain and is made up of R70 service charge and R130 network capacity charge.
Water and sanitation will increase by 13.9%, which Joburg Water’s Thokozani Tshabalala said was reflective of costs but considerate to residents.
