UCT Sustainability and the SDGs 2022 - Magazine - Page 28
SDG 12
RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION
AND PRODUCTION
Africa bears a heavy share of the world’s waste burden –
The system will incorporate a range of useful stages,
from imported plastics and e-waste clogging land昀椀lls to
including using biogas – a renewable fuel that’s produced
extractive industries that erode fragile ecosystems. These
when organic matter like food or animal waste is broken down
pressures threaten the continent’s rich biodiversity and
by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen – as an energy
the health of its people. UCT recognises that responsible
source for cooking or alternative applications.The ultimate
consumption and production are essential to both
goal is to integrate this project across UCT’s campus.
environmental sustainability and social justice.
Institutional initiatives
Creating a sustainable on-campus food waste
management system
As part of UCT’s Khusela Ikamva sustainable campus initiative,
within the waste-energy-food nexus theme, the Centre for
Bioprocess Engineering Research (CeBER) has devised a
one-of-a-kind project that breaks down waste: to use it as an
energy source for cooking or to produce 昀椀t-for-purpose water
We currently face signi昀椀cant
sustainability challenges like climate
change, waste management
and resource depletion. This
project addresses these issues by
promoting a closed loop system
where resources are ef昀椀ciently used,
where minimal waste is generated,
and renewable energy is
produced or offset.
that can later be used to irrigate on-campus vegetable gardens.
The project aims to expand the anaerobic digestion (AD)
– Dr Thanos Kotsiopoulos, project
process – a four-stage biological process that uses anaerobic
lead of Khusela Ikamva’s
waste-energy-food- nexus project.
bacteria to breakdown waste – into a multi-product system.
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Sustainability and the SDGs 2024 – 57
