Industry brief 2021

The City of Cape Town (CCT) is transitioning from landfilling wastewater sludge to anaerobic digestion at bio-solids beneficiation facilities (BBFs) due to national and provincial landfill bans on liquid and organic wastes. The CCT generates approximately 199 dry tonnes of dewatered sludge per day, which it currently spends ~R60 million annually to dispose of or apply to land. The city plans to establish two regional BBFs over the next 15 years to produce A1a class treated digestate cake and recover energy and nutrients. Potential circular economy options include agricultural use, energy recovery (biogas, combustion, pyrolysis), and commercial applications like brick manufacturing. Additionally, the CCT is exploring broader organic waste diversion for garden greens, animal carcasses, and household food waste to meet a 100% organic waste landfill diversion target by 2027.

• The City of Cape Town (CCT) generates approximately 199 dry tonnes per day of dewatered wastewater sludge, representing 74% of the total provincial sludge production in the Western Cape.
• The CCT currently spends approximately R60 million per year on the disposal or land application of its wastewater sludge, with a recent three-year service level agreement awarded in May 2020 valued at R193 million.
• Regulatory drivers for shifting away from landfilling include a nationwide ban on liquid waste disposal to landfill implemented in August 2019 and a Western Cape provincial requirement to reduce organic waste landfilling by 50% by 2022 and 100% by 2027.
• To address these liabilities, the CCT is investing in two regional bio-solids beneficiation facilities (BBFs) over the next 15 years, with a third planned for future demand, to produce A1a class treated digestate cake and generate electricity from biogas.
• CCT's dewatered primary sludge and waste activated sludge (WAS) are classified as low in contaminants (class a) and reasonably stabilised (class 1 or 2), making them suitable for beneficial utilisation.
• Identified circular economy options for sludge and digestate include agricultural uses (land application, fertilizer), energy recovery (anaerobic digesters, combustion, pyrolysis, carbonization), and commercial uses (brick manufacturing, cement, bioplastics).
• Beyond wastewater sludge, the CCT is targeting other organic waste streams for diversion, including garden greens (55,242 tonnes chipped and diverted from July 2019 to June 2020), animal carcasses, and household food waste (approximately 172,000 tonnes landfilled between July 2019 and June 2020).
• Beneficiation facilities generally require a Waste License via an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Basic Assessment, and a Water Use License due to high water content, although new norms and standards may allow some facilities to operate without a Waste License if they meet specific capacity and procedure limits.

APA

GreenCape (2021). Industry brief 2021. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sludge-Beneficiation-Brief_30_6_21-3.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Industry brief 2021. 2021. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sludge-Beneficiation-Brief_30_6_21-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Industry brief 2021 |date=2021 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sludge-Beneficiation-Brief_30_6_21-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencape2021industry, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Industry brief 2021}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2021}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sludge-Beneficiation-Brief_30_6_21-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }