Leading up to Global Recycling Day, on Friday, 18 March 2022, the City would like to turn the spotlight onto the planned Coastal Park Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Award-winning, state-of-the-art earthworks have allowed this facility to be constructed on an active landfill. Once complete, the MRF will enable the collection of clean mixed recyclables throughout the Southern Peninsula.
The City of Cape Town is making steady progress towards the construction of a large material recovery facility at the Coastal Park landfill site at a cost of approximately R378 million excluding VAT. The Coastal Park Landfill site is the centre of gravity of the entire South Peninsula Municipal Area (SPMA) waste generation and collection environment.
Ingenuity and excellence of design and construction in the earthworks component have been recognised within the engineering fraternity, with these efforts winning a National Project award for technical excellence from the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE), and an Afrisam Innovation Award for sustainable construction in 2020.
Constructing upon an active landfill poses significant challenges, since the stability of municipal waste deposits are highly variable from section to section, and can deteriorate unpredictably over time. After investigating and researching possible solutions, engineers found that it was possible to densify and stiffen municipal solid waste deposits in preparation for construction using a dynamic compaction ground improvement technique. Dynamic compaction involves dropping pounders from heights of up to 22m onto the waste body repeatedly until the desired compaction has been achieved.
The site was also obstructed by large building rubble deposits that were recycled and used in construction, saving approximately R70 million in the process.
These earthworks were completed some time ago, and in the interim, the City has been processing tenders for the construction of bulk services, the MRF building, and the design and manufacture of the sorting facility. These tenders are currently in the appeals period, with a fourth contract for operating the MRF in the pipeline.
‘The project will be key in meeting ambitious waste diversion targets in the National Waste Management Strategy of 2020. To meet these targets, residents will have to work more intensively together with the City and the private sector to minimise waste and improve the rate of recycling.
‘An interesting feature of this planned facility will be the inclusion of an Informal Waste Management area, where the informal waste sector (waste reclaimers), would be provided access to certain waste streams. The theme of Global Recycling Day 2022 is, ‘recycling fraternity’. In keeping with this, we especially would like to emphasise that the City is working to support you and the valuable work you do,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg.
Source: City Of Cape Town