EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES TAKE ACTION!
International Coastal Clean-up Day also known as World Clean-up day is an annual event held on the 3rd Saturday in September. The main aim is to raise awareness about the environmental challenges of waste and pollution in the marine environment. It is a global event that mobilises ordinary citizens to organise and promote local clean-up campaigns on beaches, coastal areas, rivers, and other green spaces.
To heed the call for action, this year, again in true Safripol style, our Everyday EnvironmentalHero’s, stepped up and came out in numbers to Take Action Against Pollution.
A total of 251 volunteers equipped with litter pickers, gloves, and plastic bags participated across two clean-up events organized by Safripol, i.e. along the Blue lagoon in KwaZulu Natal, and at the Sasolburg Stadium and adjacent roads in Sasolburg. Safripol also partnered with a number of like-minded stakeholders for both events which included Green Corridors; Reproplast; KAP; PETCO; Department of Fisheries, Forestry, and the Environment (DFFE); and Durban Solid Waste.
To inspire change amongst the youth, Safripol also arranged for the Umbilo Secondary School in Jacobs as well as Cedar High School in Sasolburg to join the activities, where in total 35 energized and aspiring kids participated and learnt about the importance of being active custodians of our environment. They also learnt about the importance of using plastic responsibly and reducing, reusing and recycling waste at end of life.
Billi- Bin – SA Good Green Deeds Mascot, made a special appearance at the Blue-Lagoon clean-up. The Bill-Bin Mascot is part of DFFE’s Good Green Deeds initiative with the objective to mobilise ordinary South African’s to pick up their litter and take responsibility for keeping their environment clean. Billi-Bin created alot of excitement not only amongst the kids but the adults alike and made for some great selfie moments. Across both events, 338 bags of materials were collected. In total, an astonishing 1100kg, that is just over 1 tons of waste materials were recovered and diverted from the environment. The recyclables were taken to Reproplast and Green Corridors in KZN, and Indaloyami Recyclers in Sasolburg so ensure that all the recyclable materials could be processed to make new secondary products and sold back into the industry.
| Blue Lagoon clean-up
Waste Material |
Total weight |
| Non-recyclable waste | 161.1 |
| Bottle (glass) | 40.7 kg |
| Cardboard and paper | 8.3 kg |
| HDPE | 5.6 kg |
| PP | 13.3 kg |
| PS | 8.8 kg |
| Bottle caps (Plastic) | 5.1 kg |
| Bottle caps (Metal) | 1.5 kg |
| Plastic (mixed plastics) | 14.7 kg |
| Cans | 0.6 kg |
| Cigarette butts, cigar tips | 0.4 kg |
| Cigarette Lighters | 0.5 kg |
| Foil | 0.8 kg |
| Tissue | 0.6 kg |
| TOTAL WASTE | = 262 kg |
| Sasolburg Clean-up 16 September 2023
Waste Data |
|
| Waste Stream | Mass |
| Boxes & Paper | 36kg |
| Clear PET | 70kg |
| Brown PET | 18kg |
| Green PET | 22kg |
| Clear LD | 46kg |
| Coloured LD | 68kg |
| Aluminium Cans | 3kg |
| Food Cans | 13kg |
| Glass Bottles | 49kg |
| Non-recyclable waste | 513kg |
| TOTAL WASTE | =838kg |
Safripol’s clean-up events this year saw its largest turn-out yet, indicating that with continuous education and awareness creation around waste and recycling, we are mobilising more and more ordinary citizens to become agents of change. We thank all the organisers who made this years’ campaign a big success, but the real stars were our Everyday Environmental Heroes, and the biggest winner was the environment. Each of us can make a difference. If we mobilise others to do the same, we have the power to change the world.
Let’s plastic responsibly.
Safripol
