IMAGES on social media of the devastating plastic pollution on Durban’s coastal environment this month, have left many Durbanites shocked, depressed and exasperated.
According to Steve Cohen, who heads up The Durban Partnership against Plastic Pollution, there is a horrible sense of déjà vu as history repeats itself every year during the rainy season, with increasing volumes of mismanaged waste.
Cohen said notwithstanding the long-term effects from plastic persisting in the environment for hundreds of years, there were a number of positive developments people should be aware of.
“In the past citizens have had to wait weeks for any action. This year, a number of teams had been mobilised within 24 hours including over 50 cleaners from the Government Working for the Coast programme, Wildlands Trust and Durban Green Corridors. There were also community groups who got stuck in, including #cleanbluelagoon and local schools,” he said.
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Durban Green Corridor and Wildlands teams spent days on site at Blue Lagoon collecting PET for recycling and hosted a major beach clean-up with organisations and concerned residents during the week. According to the Durban Green Corridor, there is still a lot more that needs to be done at the river mouth moving towards M4 bridge and more especially next to the Blue Lagoon pools where the teams could not reach the waste. The next phase will include reinstalling the litter booms that were washed away in the flooding, as these have proven to have a positive impact in preventing huge volumes of litter being washed into the ocean.
Cohen said key role players were working on the source of the problem.
“We all know that cleaning up is a band-aid to a festering sore and that we need to tackle the problem at source. The good news is that stakeholders are developing a multi-sectoral programme for Durban, called Source to Sea, led by the National and Provincial Departments of Environment Affairs and eThekwini Municipality, with experienced local NGOs having been earmarked as key implementing partners. The programme aims to develop a catchment-based programme that minimises waste, strengthens waste management services, improves recycling activities, carries out education and behaviour change and intercepts litter before it gets to the coast,” he said.
Durban Green Corridor is currently piloting community-focused, catchment-based interventions to prevent and control mismanaged waste destined for the sea, with funding from RMB and Coca Cola Beverages South Africa. These activities include education, recycling and installation of litter booms in strategic locations.
Cohen said an upside to the recent shocking incident has been a backlash from consumers which is starting to pay dividends.
“Consumers and advocacy groups are confronting retailers and brand-owners and demanding that they become more environmentally friendly corporate citizens. As a result, we are starting to see real commitment towards sustainability and circular economy principles. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2018, eleven global brand owners made the ground-breaking commitment to making 100 per cent of their packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025 or earlier, including evian, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever and Walmart and Nestle,” said Cohen.
He said Shoprite had begun to offer plastic bags made from recycled plastic, SPAR encouraged consumers to “Rethink the Bag” and Pick n Pay had introduced compostable bags, which he felt was the start of something big.
“Innovation is taking hold of the packaging sector and it is back to the future as innovators are developing revolutionary alternatives to petrochemical plastics, using natural fibres from plants, biomass-based, compostable, synthetic bio-polymers, and re-usable, durable, non-plastic materials,” he said.
Cohen said global leaders are upping the ante in the fight against marine debris from land-based sources, most of it plastic. He said the UN Environment Assembly is meeting in Nairobi to develop actions to address marine plastic litter and microplastics and more than 200 countries, including South Africa, have signed a UN resolution to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea and are developing country-led plans to address the scourge.
Durban Green Corridor is urging citizens to play their part by not littering and to go to the beach with one bin bag, fill it up and leave with it.
