Spoornet finds waste is a winner

Project could generate R300-million annually

WASTE NOT, want not has become a Spoornet slogan. The movement of solid waste from metropolitan areas by rail to remote landfill sites has become a potential money spinner.
"We went this route when we found the problems facing the majority of municipalities in this country," says Willie Dunckley, Spoornet's waste business manager.
"Most of them had the problem of using the hole in their backyard for waste, which did not conform with new legislation. So they began looking for places to deposit their waste elsewhere."
That's where Spoornet stepped in. Now they are set to earn in the region of R6 million this year by moving solid waste from Cape Town alone.
"It actually started in 1995, when we saw the business opportunity and began moving waste from a landfill about 30km away at Vissershoek on the West coast.
"The concept is planned to get underway from Knysna later this year, and then we will be looking at East London, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, with other projects under investigation in KwaZulu Natal and the Free State," he says.
Dunckley foresees the service bringing in as much as R300 million annually to Spoornet in a few years time.
South Africa's cities and larger towns generate 37 million tons of waste annually, but are now faced with legislation which the minimum requirements for the handling and disposal of waste aimed at reducing pollution near built-up areas.
"Transporting waste by rail is cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly than by road, and that's why it is so acceptable to those municipalities with which we are dealing," says Dunckley.
BY LEONARD NEILL