The City of Cape Town promotes the recycling of builders’ rubble and construction waste, and has awarded a tender to a company to process it into in-fill material, which is then sold to the construction industry.

The rubble recycling facilities are available at the Bellville South landfill site, the Gordon’s Bay drop-off facility and the Coastal Park landfill site.

Melani Materials, a BEE subsidiary of Afrimat, was awarded the tender in October last year. The company uses a mobile crushing unit to crush the disposed rubble at the three sites and process it according to SABS standards. Recycled water is used to suppress dust while the machines are operational. The material is then converted into infill or layer work materials, such as G5 and G4 road building material (which is used as one of the layers when constructing a road).

A crushing unit is able to crush approximately 800 tons of rubble a day, which is significant given that Cape Town produces in the region of 7000 tons of waste per day - a quarter of which is made up of construction waste and demolished concrete.

"By recycling construction waste, the City not only optimises the use of landfill space, but also helps put back valuable materials into the manufacturing stream," said Clive Justus, chairperson of the utility services portfolio committee.

Hylton Hale of Afrimat says the company has sold close to two million tons of the infill material, which equates to about a 1.2 million cubic metre saving of dump space.
“There is a good environmental angle to this, in that we are saving the city a significant amount of airspace, which is valuable in terms of sustainability,” he said.

Hale pointed out that 70% of roads in the Netherlands are built using recycled material, and in the UK there is an extra tax on virgin material (quarried material). “I have a lot of faith in this,” he said.

Enquiries can be directed to Afrimat on 021 380 4800

Sites with builders' rubble recycling facilities:
Gordon’s Bay drop-off facility
Bellville South landfill site
Coastal Park landfill site

Types of materials accepted:
Only uncontaminated clean builders’ rubble comprising bricks, stone and concrete debris
Concrete blocks with a maximum diameter of 500mm or smaller

Types of materials not accepted:
Builders’ rubble contaminated with wood, plastic or any toxic material
Glass, garden refuse, ceramic tiles, tyres, cabling and electronic waste