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Urban Mining and Circular Economy in South Africa: Waste as a Resource for New Generation of Hybrid Materials

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Waste Management in Developing Countries

Part of the book series: Waste as a Resource ((WR))

Abstract

One of the most current and important mission for Waste Specialists in South Africa lies on maximising the diversion of waste away from landfill towards value-adding opportunities. This includes prevention of waste and the optimised extraction of value from reuse, recycling, and recovery to create significant social, economic, and environmental benefit for South Africa. The CSIR has identified and has flagged four waste streams as high priority streams: municipal solid waste, waste plastic, organic waste, and waste tyres.

The investigation of these identified waste streams within the South African context and within the theme of Urban Mining, Circular Economy, and Landfill diversion should be perceived as a modern and reliable review of high priority waste streams within set parameters and a set scope towards closing the loop and creating new generation of hybrid materials using waste as a resource.

This report offers a precise mapping and a set of scenarios shaped for the circularity, diversion of waste streams from landfill, optimisation via urban mining, and creation of new materials. This work sheds lights on the reality of the circular economy notion in South Africa and proposes a set of reliable modern guidelines with scenarios for urban mining and waste as a resource for hybrid materials. The research confirmed that municipal solid waste, post-consumer plastic waste, paper mill sludge, and waste tyres are reliable resources for alternative building materials or new generation of hybrid materials.

This study spans from preliminary experimental studies conducted in the KwaZulu-Natal province and other municipality studies. The waste materials have been evaluated using a flexible integrated waste management approach and a set of options based on adapted viable scenarios for reuse, recycling, recovery, and landfill diversion.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Sanitation & Hygiene, Research & Development Centre (WASH R&D Centre), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Noredine Mahdjoub

  2. Water Sanitation & Hygiene, Research & Development Centre (WASH R&D Centre), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Noredine Mahdjoub

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  1. Noredine Mahdjoub
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco

    Hassan El Bari

  2. School of Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Cristina Trois

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Mahdjoub, N. (2023). Urban Mining and Circular Economy in South Africa: Waste as a Resource for New Generation of Hybrid Materials. In: El Bari, H., Trois, C. (eds) Waste Management in Developing Countries. Waste as a Resource. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28001-6_9

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