Energy from waste : a possible way of meeting goal 7 of the sustainable development goals in South Africa

Abstract: Energy from waste has been in recent years the focus of many developing nations that are serious about tackling energy crisis especially within Africa. With the current global crash of crude oil prices, environmental pollution and global warming, renewable energy is beginning to gain more attention and among such energies termed renewable energy is biogas which could be generated from organic wastes especially municipal solid wastes. Wastes from landfill sites cuts across all sectors of life as a result there is need to categorise such wastes according to its origin, composition, toxicity and management. By doing the waste categorization, it will be easier to determine what proportion of landfill wastes could be used to produce energy that can be affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern for all which is the goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In September 2000 leaders from 189 countries signed the Millennium Development Goals at the United Nations headquarter and the 8 goals which was set to be achieved by 2015 was clearly communicated to participating countries were believed to be realistic with clear measurement/ monitoring mechanism. By September 2015 some of the MDGs were well achieved and need to be sustained while some of the goals still needed to be worked upon this was what led to the transition from MDGs to SDGs at the UN General Assembly in 2015. The MDGs was further broken down into 17 individual goals which make up the SDGs and these goals are expected to be achieved by September 2030. This research focuses on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) classification and quantification, biogas production and upgrading techniques which could be used for energy production as a means of realizing the SDGs goal 7 within the next 15 years