The City’s Urban Waste Management Directorate is optimistic about the future of an innovative waste-to-energy project run by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research (CeBER). The project breaks down waste and converts it into an energy source.
Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg reports back after his visit to UCT’s CeBER.
"We highly welcome these initiatives from various sectors as they align with our new Waste Strategy, which focuses on using waste as a valuable resource, while keeping our communities clean. Converting food waste into energy plays a key role in the circular economy. Food waste generates greenhouse gases in our landfills, which poses huge environmental threats as they have global warming potential estimated to be 25 times higher than carbon dioxide.
As the City, we are also working towards generating energy from our landfills in Coastal Park, Vissershok and Bellville, with the Coastal Park project being in the advanced stages and set to start operating. When running at full capacity, it will produce approximately 15 000 000 kWh/year. This will be used primarily for powering operations and equipment at the landfill site, including the new recycling facility that is currently in the final stages of construction."
WHAT: University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research
WHERE: University of Cape Town
PHOTO: Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg; Portfolio Chair, Councillor Brenda Hansen; Project Leader, Dr Thanos Kotsiopoulos and Scientific Officer, Dr Juarez Amaral-Filho.
