A R3,7 billion waste-to-energy project that has been on the cards for several years for Nelson Mandela Bay was recently put on hold by the metro’s mayor, Athol Trollip.

Trollip said he required more details about how the project would work and that costs involved needed to be clarified.

The project hopes to see the involvement of the private sector, with the aim to produce energy from recycling waste. The metro indicated that it collects approximately 5,000,000 tonnes of waste a year.

Trollip’s concerns

Trollip discussed his concerns at a mayoral meeting held last week which involved the costs of the project. He said, “We are not going to have mega-projects that consume mega-money with no return.”

He described the proposed waste-to-energy facility as a “megaproject” and said that projects of such magnitudes needed to be “fully understood”.

“We need to understand where the money is coming from,” he said. “We need to make sure tender processes are done properly and that everything that is done is beyond reproach.”

Municipality goes to Treasury

The municipality approached National Treasury to assist with seeking funding for the project. The municipality said it was ideally looking for a private investor to invest a considerable sum of money to kick start the project.

The municipality added that it aimed to get the facility fully operational by 2021.

Nelson Mandela Bay should avoid developing a third landfill

The metro currently has two landfill sites. Treasury official Strover Maganedisa told The Herald that if the metro does not deal properly with its waste and gases at its current landfill sites, it will have to develop a new landfill which could cost up to R1, 5 billion.

“Those are costs to be avoided,” he said. “You have an opportunity now to take the (waste) and turn it into revenue.”

Trollip said that not enough was being done by the municipality to promote waste recycling.

He said the metros waste management process was to simply “collect all the rubbish, dump it all in one place and hope that it won’t become too much of a mountain too soon”.

Trollip reiterated that the project had to be discussed more thoroughly and stressed that costs involved needed to be scrutinised. He added that until a new coalition government was fully briefed about the details of the project, that it should be put on hold.