The Living Ghoen

A 700 m² flooring project at Redhill School, in Sandton, was completed in mid-November last year, using imported Ecore Ecosurfaces rubber flooring, manufactured from recycled tyres by international commercial flooring company Ecore, and supplied by Polyflor South Africa (SA).

The renewal of Cape Town water-treatment systems manufacturer Resource Ballast Technologies’ (RBT’s) Type Approval Certificate for its ballast water-treatment system could allow the company to benefit from what is potentially a $34-billion worldwide ba…

An estimated R570-billion is needed over the next ten years to maintain and expand South Africa’s water infrastructure, says events organiser Exhibition Management Services MD John Thomson. He notes that South Africa’s growing demand for clean, potable water continues to put pressure on resources and infrastructure, a trend that is common all over Africa.

Wastewater solutions provider Organic Water Solutions (OWS) introduced its new containerised wastewater treatment plants, called the Cobra or Containerised Bio Reactor, onto the South African market in December 2012 and has completed one installation, with another currently under way.  

Engineers from consulting and engineering services provider Royal HaskoningDHV’s branches in Holland and Portugal have been brought in to transfer knowledge and expertise on its Nereda wastewater-treatment technology to their South African counterparts.  

Sewage and effluent is an important aspect of the waste industry and a growing challenge in Africa and other developing nations, given rapid population growth and increased urbanisation, as well as limited related infrastructure, Wastex Africa director Septi Bukula tells Engineering News.  

Downstream-focused petroleum products group Engen will focus on greening more of its retail sites in its 19 territories across sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, then turn to its depots and offices across the group in the future.

South Africa’s energy-intensive industrial stakeholders, including mining houses, water boards, refineries and State-owned utilities, are becoming increasingly aware of pump system optimisation, as a result of the Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) improvement project, an initiative implemented jointly by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) and the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA), says Unido-contracted national pump expert Harry Rosen. The project, established in 2010, is a collaborative initiative between the South African government through the departments of Trade and Industry and Energy, the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the UK Department for International Development, with the aim of improving the capacity of South African industries to use available energy resources more efficiently and productively.

As the worldwide recession subsides, the South African paper and pulp industry has settled, with some grades of sustainably produced pulp, packaging and tissue paper showing slight growth in demand.

The paper and packaging industry is a significant contributor to local manufacturing and recycling and continues to create local job opportunities, says JSE-listed plastic and paper packaging group Mpact CEO Bruce Strong.