Yesterday, on 4 November 2015, The City of Cape Town, in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), opened its plastics-to-oil conversion plant at the Kraaifontein Integrated Waste Management Facility.

The plant will provide invaluable insights into the potential for creating fuel from plastic waste diverted from landfill sites. This is a new technology for South Africa and one that is attracting considerable international interest for its potential to add significant value to recycled waste plastics.

Not only will a system such as this contribute towards solving problems related to hard-to-recycle plastics and microplastics, it also has the potential to create jobs with better earning potential for plastics recyclers.

Grand opening ceremony

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to mark the plant opening, which represented a culmination of more than a year’s worth of preparation and cooperation between the City of Cape Town, Japanese S advisory organisation JICA and its Japanese partner corporations.

The City’s mayoral committee member for utility services, councillor Ernest Sonnenberg,  attended the event in order to show his department’s support as well as welcoming Japanese dignitaries, including Shigeyuki Hiroki, Japanese Ambassador to South Africa.

Sonnenberg’s offices have promised to grant ReSource magazine an interview on what conditions allowed for the Metro to pioneer this technology and how the City envisages it will benefit citizens and the environment.