SA and Swiss partner to dispose of e-waste

The City of Joburg has set up 25 public collection points for discarded computers, cellphones, microwaves and other electronic equipment. This e-waste will go to recycling companies for dismantling, reducing waste going to landfill sites. About 70% of South Africa's e-waste is thought to be in storage, representing up to 20,000 tons of waste. Switzerland will use its decade-long experience in recycling e-waste to help Joburg's waste management utility, Pikitup.

[Source: The Star (Johannesburg), 17 November 2006]

The Star in Johannesburg reports:

In 2004 more than 180-million PCs were sold worldwide. In the same year, an estimated 100-million obsolete PCs entered the waste streams... In South Africa, it is estimated that betweeen 1.2 and 1.5 million computers enter the market each year.

wastewater to biofuels

One of the most creative proposals I have seen for combining wastewater effluent with labour-intensive farming for job creation comes from Robbie Robinson in South Africa. He says that low-quality agricultural land is already being used with subsurface drip irrigation fed with dolomitic water from gold mines. He figures that clusters of small-lot farms could use the millions of kilolitres of water produced by the mines to grow rows of crops in rotation, so that a central biofuel production plant could be supplied with feedstock throughout the year, and the farmers would have a continuous income.

[Source: The Star (Johannesburg), 17 November 2006]