Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionThe smelters’ high energy consumption is largely responsible for the intensity ofgreenhouse gas emissions (CO 2e), contributing the equivalent of 5.7% to South Africa’semissions. This is supplemented by perfluorocarbons (PFCs), which are extremelypowerful and long lasting greenhouse gases, emitted primarily during upset conditionsat the plants according to BHP Billiton [2006]. Power outages or poor management ofthe smelting process therefore increase emissions and it may be anticipated that 2008was a very bad year for PFC emissions.The table also shows an extraordinary intensity of sulphur dioxide emissions, withBayside’s emissions similar to that of Durban’s oil refineries and Hillside and Mozalemitting nearly three times as much. In the smelting process, alumina is saturatedwith fluoride to give rise to the fluoride emissions. Fluoride is toxic to a variety ofplants even at very low concentrations and also accumulates in plants. Exposure evento low emissions thus results in fluoride concentrations accumulating over time and soentering the food chain from vegetables or grass grazed by cattle.Aluminium is smelted in pots at very high heat. The pot linings accumulate carbonand must periodically be renewed. Spent pot linings form the bulk of the solid wastefrom smelting and the carbon is impregnated with alumina and fluoride and lacedwith cyanide and arsenic. It is classified as a hazardous waste. Faced with rising disposalcosts, BHP Billiton entered a partnership with EnviroServ to reduce costs and “increasethe value of its waste streams into specific offset markets” [BHP Billiton 2006: 50]. Inother words, it was looking to sell waste with the aim, according to EnviroServ, of “zerowaste to landfill” [2007: 24]. EnviroServ now ‘recycles’ the waste as an alternative fuelfor steel and cement production and so saves “enormous volumes of valuable landfillair-space” [25]. What does not go down into the landfill, however, generally goes upinto the air.Cement kilnsThe major cement corporations are AfriSam, Lafarge, Natal Portland Cement (NPC)and Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC). AfriSam is the newest kid on the block, takingthe place of transnational corporation Holcim. The latter dressed up disinvestmentfrom South Africa as an empowerment deal which was carried through with R6 billionsupport from the state owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC). These fourcompanies are the members of the Cement and Concrete Institute whose objective is“to increase the market share” of concrete in construction. At present, residential and- 122 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation