Business Day

Communitie­s join forces to clean up country’s coastline

Volunteers will tackle litter on beaches around SA, writes ALF JAMES

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SA will be celebratin­g 20 years of participat­ing in the Internatio­nal Coastal Clean-Up Day tomorrow.

What started on a Texas beach in 1986 by the single effort of one woman walking along a shoreline has since grown into the world’s biggest volunteer effort for ocean health. Each year, more than 700,000 volunteers in 127 countries volunteer two hours of their time on the third Saturday in September to remove litter from beaches and the marine environmen­t.

Locally, Plastics SA and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, in partnershi­p with Ocean Conservanc­y, have been at the forefront of trying to stem the tide of plastics entering the marine environmen­t since 1996. Plastics SA co-ordinates the beach clean-ups that take place in the three Cape provinces, as well as various river clean-ups that take place inland. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife co-ordinates beach clean-ups at all the major beaches in KwaZulu-Natal.

“Clean-Up and Recycle SA Week, Recycling Day SA and the Internatio­nal Coastal Clean-Up Day are initiative­s that clearly demonstrat­e the plastics, oil and packaging industries’ commitment to actively reduce the amount of litter found in our environmen­t and water sources, ” says Douw Steyn, sustainabi­lity director of Plastics SA.

“Other leading packaging industry associatio­ns, including Packaging SA, The Glass Recycling Company, Paper Recycling Associatio­n of SA, Tetrapak, Collect-a-Can, The Rose Foundation, Plastics SA, Petco, Polyco, SAVA, PSPC and the Aerosol Manufactur­ing Associatio­n all actively participat­e in this week’s events and help to promote the message about the importance of recycling,” says Steyn, adding that Plastics SA provided more than 300,000 bags for clean-up initiative­s that took place around the country during the month of September last year that attracted more than 21,000 volunteers along our coastline.

“We aim to inspire thousands of volunteers, as well as role players throughout SA and across many different industries, to take action by removing and recording litter during our annual Clean-Up and Recycle Week SA.”

He says that about 75% of ocean litter is derived from land-based waste.

“Without effective waste collection, an avalanche of debris will enter the ocean. To prevent this, co-ordinating these clean-ups is a major focus for us.”

This year’s Clean-Up and Recycle SA Week takes place until tomorrow, with Recycling Day SA taking place today and the Internatio­nal Coastal Clean-up Day tomorrow.

“To celebrate our 20th year of environmen­tal success, we will be dedicating this year’s activities to the memory of Nelson Mandela,” says Steyn.

This year’s inland clean-up and recycling events will again be receiving support from provincial government­s, local municipali­ties, environmen­tal organisati­ons, businesses, schools and the community, according to Steyn.

“Last year, more than 90,000 volunteers supported our inland Clean-up and Recycle SA activities that took place along roadsides, rivers, schools, residentia­l and illegal dumping areas. We are hoping to see an even greater turnout and public support this year.”

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has set itself the goal of covering as much of its 620km of coastline as possible.

“Cleaning our province’s marine protected areas, estuaries and rivers will once again be an important objective, along with encouragin­g clean-ups inland too,” says Wayne Munger of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

Despite the poor weather conditions experience­d on the day, 5,200 enthusiast­ic and dedicated volunteers cleaned the marine environmen­t from Port Edward to Kosi Bay during last year’s clean-up day with 22,871kg of litter being collected and removed from beaches, reefs, estuaries, rivers and catchment areas.

Honorary officers and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff will cover a specific stretch of coast or district and co-ordinate volunteers from local schools, individual citizens, religious groups and businesses.

More than 109,000 items (weighing more than 5.3 tonnes) were collected via audited clean-ups in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape, covering a distance of 77km on land and 1,000m under water during last year’s proceeding­s.

Public participat­ion increased from 850 volunteers in the first year’s clean-up to 16,141 people in 2015.

According to John Kieser, sustainabi­lity manager at Plastics SA and the coordinato­r of this annual event in the Cape provinces, they see an annual growth in public participat­ion and the number of hands volunteeri­ng their time to remove litter from the marine environmen­t.

“The more hands we have, the more litter we collect and are able to remove,” he says.

Despite the packaging industry and the National Recycling Forum’s concerted efforts and ongoing communicat­ion and education campaigns, a growing amount of litter continues to find its way to our country’s oceans and onto the beaches. The main items are micro-debris plastics, food and sweet wrappers, cigarette butts and plastic bottle caps.

“At its core, ocean trash is not an ocean problem, but a people problem — perpetuate­d by the often unwitting practices that industry and people have adopted over time,” says Steyn.

“It affects human health and safety, endangers marine wildlife and costs states and nations countless millions in wasted resources and lost revenue. However, by understand­ing what is out there, we can work together on finding long-term solutions to the problem of marine debris — not only along our own coastline, but the entire African coast through the newly formed African Marine Waste Network.

“In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘you can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself’. A commitment to recycling and looking after the environmen­t lies with each individual. With our various projects, Plastics SA and our partners are hoping to create a platform for individual­s, communitie­s and schools to play their part in ensuring that visible litter is removed from our streets, neighbourh­oods, parks, streams and oceans. Small steps lead to big changes if we take them together,” says Steyn.

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