Recycling programme piloted
● Munch the coelacanth emerges as a waste warrior
It takes a fish to save a fish — and it helps if it is a very wise, old fish.
That is the vision of a new Sustainable Seas Trust recycling project developed from an unusual concept introduced by two innovative Port Elizabeth youngsters.
It is called Munch on the Move and the centrepiece is a large wire model of a coelacanth, the rare prehistoric fish once thought to be extinct but which was rediscovered in 1938 on the Eastern Cape coast.
The model, created by the trust — a non-profit group — and creative community wire worker Cosmas Hawker, is divided into five waste compartments for plastic caps, polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles, paper, high-density polyethylene plastic items and aluminium cans.
The aim is to move Munch around between schools to spark a recycling ethos and in line with this approach it is being piloted in Motherwell at Mfesane Secondary School.
The trust’s education head, Nozi Mbongwa, said yesterday the aim of the programme was to measurably reduce plastic pollution on school grounds around Africa.
“Munch is being used together with various support aids as the key tool to get the children excited about recycling.”
Patricia Mapuma, a teacher at Mfesane, and founder and co-ordinator of the school’s environmental club, said she and her pupils were excited about the programme.
“The environmental club pupils are always seeking opportunities to reduce the waste within our school, and this is going to be a fun project for them to champion.
“This programme is going to encourage environmental responsibility among all the pupils, and hopefully they’ll take the message back to their homes.”
The concept of Munch was conceived and introduced to the trust by the Reilly siblings Jemima, 8, and Gabriel, 12.
Jemima said they wanted to raise awareness about plastic pollution after watching a video of a turtle with a straw lodged in its nose.
“We wanted to get Munch because there’s a lot of rubbish on the beach that we don’t want the fish to eat.”
The aim is to roll the programme out to four more schools, two in the Bay and two in Gauteng, before May.