Drive to clear 50 tons of litter from city beaches

IN THE past week, almost 200 000 people visited Durban beaches, boosting the city’s tourism industry, but at the same time, they left behind nearly 50 tons of litter.

The ethekwini Municipality said about 48 000 people visited the beaches last week, while 145 000 people were on the beach on Saturday and Sunday, leaving behind enough litter to fill 15 000 refuse bags.

On average, the municipality collected 18 tons of litter a day since the start of the festive season, said Durban Solid Waste (DSW) operations manager, Keith Mckinnon.

Now that the festive season has come to an end, the municipality will work until January 14 to get the city’s beaches back to normal.

The city’s Waste Management Plan provided 700 bins along the beaches, from Laguna Beach southwards, and had employed 54 staff in addition to the usual 129 to keep the beaches clean, said Mckinnon.

In December, the municipality asked beachgoers to use the bins provided and issued a reminder that beaches were “bottle-free” areas, warning that “broken bottles could cause serious injury to other beachgoers and cleaners”.

Even with the clean-up drive, the sheer volume of litter could be a hazard to marine life, especially the plastic packets, bottles, cans, and other non-degradable items.

Clean-up South Africa, an organisation that runs coastal clean-up sessions every September, said marine life was easily entangled in man-made debris: “Entanglement has serious implications for marine animals, often resulting in injuries or restriction of movement.” TWO MEN appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court yesterday for allegedly pointing a green laser beam at helicopters taking off from two Bloemfontein airports.

Theunis le Grange, 45, and Albertus Niewoudt, 21, received bail of R500 each, police spokesman Colonel Vishnu Naidoo said.

The matter was postponed to January 24. The case against a 14year-old boy was withdrawn. He would be referred for counselling and monitoring by social workers.

The two men face charges of contravening aviation laws.

The three were arrested for pointing a laser at helicopters taking off from Bloemfontein Airport and Bloemspruit Air Force base. Naidoo said the lasers could blind or disorientate pilots, which could result in aircraft crashing.

According to the Civil Aviation Act, any person who wilfully performs any act that jeopardises the operation of an air carrier is guilty of an offence. – Sapa