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From mining impact to environmental solutions

02 January 2024 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen | Photo Chris Nelson

Dr Maryam Amra Jordaan, co-founded SA Rebuilders.

Only 16% of plastic gets recycled in South Africa, despite technological advancements. While the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulation of 2021 assigns post-consumer recycling responsibility to producers, substantial efforts are needed to develop effective waste management strategies, heighten public awareness, discover practical solutions, and hold plastic-producing companies accountable.

Prioritising environmental sustainability

Dr Maryam Amra Jordaan co-founded SA Rebuilders with her husband, Yasar Amra, in 2016. By combining 3D printing, chemistry, and plastic recycling, they tackle socio-economic issues while prioritising environmental sustainability. As the daughter of a miner from Kimberley, Dr Jordaan is committed to mitigating the negative effects that industries have on the health, environment, and social aspects of local communities. She was honoured with an Alumni Cum Laude Award from the University of the Free State (UFS) for her work in this regard.

Dr Jordaan’s academic journey at the UFS from 2001 to 2013 includes a BSc in Chemistry and Physiology, BSc Honours, MSc, and a PhD in Organic Chemistry. She dedicated five years to lecturing and research on the Qwaqwa Campus and four years at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT). During this time, she authored 19 pharmaceutical and environmental chemistry research papers and won numerous national and international awards. She entered the UFS with dreams of assisting in some way and ended up helping to solve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Remarkable potential for rapid prototyping and supply chain resilience through digitisation exists, but the current energy crisis hampers the full realisation of 3D printing’s potential,” Dr Jordaan explains. Added to this, is the complex endeavour of becoming a 3D engineer. “Expertise in materials science and project management is equally essential. Creativity, quick learning, and meticulous attention to detail are all characteristics necessary to excel as a 3D engineer.”

Seeking out biodegradable product alternatives

Dr Jordaan stresses the need for effective waste management, awareness, practical solutions, and accountability for individuals and plastic-producing companies. Therefore, she promotes reusable and recyclable shopping bags, among others, and instils this behaviour in her children. The Amras actively seek out biodegradable product alternatives, as they are fully aware of the environmental impact of the manufacturing industry.

They incorporated this ideology in the manufacturing process of organic butter by transforming the plastic waste from this process into a 3D filament. This product is currently undergoing SABS testing, after which it will be available to the local market.

News Archive

Plant-strengthening agent enhances natural ability of plants to survive

2015-07-27

Drought, diseases, and fungi. These are factors that farmers have no control over, and they often have to watch despondently as their crops are damaged. In addition, the practice of breeding plants in special and strictly-controlled conditions, has resulted in crops losing the chemical ability to protect themselves in nature.

Researchers in the Department of Soil, Crop, and Climate Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) have developed an organic agent that restores this chemical imbalance in plants. It enables the plant to build its own resistance against mild stress factors, and thus ensures increased growth and yield by the plant.

ComCat®, a plant-strengthening agent, is the result of extensive research by the German company, Agraforum AG, together with the UFS. Commercialisation was initially limited to Europe, while research was done at the UFS.

“Plants have become weak because they were grown specially and in isolation. They can’t protect themselves any longer,” says Dr Elmarie van der Watt from the department.

Dr Van der Watt says that, in nature, plants communicate by means of natural chemicals as part of their resistance mechanisms towards various stress conditions. These chemicals enable them to protect themselves against stress conditions, such as diseases and fungi (biotic conditions) or wind and droughts (abiotic conditions).

Most wild plant varieties are usually well-adapted to resist these stress factors. However, monoculture crops have lost this ability to a large extent.

The European researchers extracted these self-protection chemicals from wild plants, and made them available to the UFS for research and development.

“This important survival mechanism became dormant in monoculture crops. ComCat® wakes the plant up and says ‘Hey, you should start protecting yourself’.”

Research over the last few years has shown that the agent, applied mostly as a foliar spray, subsequently leads to better seedlings, as well as to growth, and yields enhancement of various crops. This is good news for the agricultural sector as it does not induce unwanted early vegetative growth that could jeopardise the final yield ? as happened in the past for nitrogen application at an early growth stage.

“The use of synthetic agents, such as fungicides which contain copper, are now banned. Nowadays, options for natural and organic agriculture is being investigated. This product is already widely used in Europe, but because farmers are often swamped by quacks, the South African market is still somewhat sceptical.”

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