On World Environment Day, marked on June 5 annually, the V&A Waterfront unveiled its latest “green” project - a café built using only waste materials harvested throughout the precinct.

The café, located opposite The Ridge in Dock Road, was open to a few guests on Wednesday.

Project manager Okhelwa Gampu, said the café, which will be called Portwood Café, was built from 98% recyclable materials, including the art piece - a feature wall made with recycled glass bottles.

Petro Myburg, senior manager for sustainability at the Waterfront, at the black water treatment plant.

She said the materials used were salvaged from the demolished sites around the Waterfront where there was lots of ongoing development. “It's a laborious process, picking through waste materials and treating them, then putting them together to create this. While this was a first and putting it together took a long time, there was an educational aspect of working with other forms of building material. Some of the materials were condemned so we improvise sometimes, but our café came together.

She said some of the materials had to be new for the sake of compliance.

The Waterfront’s head of communications, Donald Kau, said: “This is a low-tech, low energy building and certainly the first of its kind in the Waterfront.

“We believe that this demonstration can highlight the role of alternative building methodologies for broader applications and sector development, demonstrating circular economy thinking in practice.”

The café is in walking distance to the Waterfront’s greenest building, The Ridge, constructed with eco-bricks and natural materials, and will include lots of greenery, natural ventilation and support for non-motorised transport.

Behind the café is a food garden, managed by the Waterfront. The produce grown there is given to NGOs and feeding schemes in the city and surrounds, said Mr Kau.

The desalination plant at the Waterfront, which had just been commissioned.

The cafe’s unveiling comes two weeks after the Waterfront, together with LuvSide GmbH, a German manufacturer, unveiled four LS Double Helix 1.0 turbines in the Silo District, aiming to show their commitment to sustainability by using wind energy to support the main supply at the precinct.

Petro Myburg, senior manager for sustainability at the Waterfront, said the sustainability journey started in 2008 when South Africa implemented water restrictions.

She said since then the precinct had managed to implement a trail of sustainable development initiatives, including:

Energy efficiency initiatives, which reduced energy use by 40%. Its 2 MW photovoltaic solar panels generate 1 640 000 kWh of clean energy annually.
Waste management, which diverts 62% of the precinct’s waste from landfills. This includes more than 2 300 tons of organic waste and 2 100 tons of recycling every year.
The Waterfront is home to 22 buildings that have been Green Star rated by the Green Building Council of South Africa, making it one of the greenest neighbourhoods on the continent.
Water conservation initiatives include a black water treatment plant that can process 200 000 litres a day and produces treated effluent that is used to flush toilets, and a solar-powered desalination plant, set to be up and running later this year.

The Waterfront’s waste management centre, which helps divert nearly half of the waste generated in the precinct.

Staff sort the waste at the management centre and separate the recyclable materials.

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Waterfront unveils latest green project