Soft drink giant helps clean lagoon
CHOKING THE WORLD’S BEACHES
The devastating effect of litter on marine life was demonstrated in a YouTube video by the United Nations Environment Programme of the largest beach cleanup in history at Versova Beach in Mumbai, India.
“Marine litter is one of the fastest growing threats to the health of the world’s oceans,” the video stated.
Afroz Shah, a 33-year-old lawyer, started the movement in the spirit of active citizenship and on week 43, when the video was filmed on August 6 and 7, United Nations Patron of the Oceans, cold water swimmer Lewis Pugh, offered his services.
South African beaches are not exempt from marine litter and community members in the north of Durban have also demonstrated their commitment to cleaning up Blue Lagoon Beach and garner community support on their Facebook page #CleanBlueLagoon. Pugh even encouraged and congratulated the community members on their efforts at their most recent clean-up, on August 20.
At the end of July, an emergency clean-up was held to clear the litter washed up on the beach during heavy rains, but it wasn’t just community members who joined in. After noticing that one of the most identifiable sources of litter were plastic bottles, resident Richard McLennan posted a photo of the litter on Coca-Cola South Africa’s Facebook page and appealed for the company to join the cleanup. McLennan said he did not blame Coca-Cola for the litter but asked for their assistance.
Coca-Cola South Africa responded to the plea, confirming they would take part. A beach cleanup is not foreign to Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa, which has participated in the International Coastal Cleanup project for 22 years.
Camilla Osborne, internal and digital communications manager for Coca-Cola South Africa, explained that answering McLennan’s Facebook request was in line with the post-consumer waste recovery initiatives and targets of The Coca-Cola Company and local bottling partners.
“Specifically, in response to the South African government introducing the New National Waste Management Act in 2009, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa, as part of the Coca-Cola system, is committed to the extended producer responsibility principle as introduced by the Act,” said Osborne.
She said more than 1 000 bags of waste were removed from Blue Lagoon during the July 30 cleanup.
The cooperation of Coca-Cola in the Blue Lagoon cleanup on July 30 demonstrates that business can play a key role in addressing environmental and social problems, which is a stance taken by the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA).
Senior manager of the policy and futures unit, Tatjana von Bormann, and senior manager of the marine programme, John Duncan, for WWF-SA, explained that where the independent conservation organisation had been working with willing businesses, they had definitely seen a change in addressing negative impacts in immediate operations and addressing things like waste in the post-consumer use phase.
They believed business should tackle issues of environmental responsibility proactively, and said end-of-life responsibility for a product was a key principle too few businesses were willing to acknowledge.
The marine litter consisted of product packaging in the post-consumer use phase of products and Von Bormann and Duncan explained there was no enabling policy environment to compel sufficient responsibility in this phase.
Further, such policies needed to be enforced and a willingness by companies to take action was required.
In SA, there are some extended producer responsibility schemes, but Von Bormann and Duncan believed there needed to be a focus on waste reduction as well as recycling. –
Litter is one of the fastest growing threats to the health of the world’s oceans. UN Environment Programme