According to Douw Steyn, Director: Sustainability at Plastics|SA and chairman of the National Recycling Forum (NRF), all packaging streams, as well as oil and e-waste recyclers, will use this week to spread the message about the importance of looking after the environment and ensuring that everybody takes responsibility for recycling where they work, live or play.
"The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved," Steyn says. For the past 20 years, Plastics|SA (the mouthpiece of the local plastics industry), has been coordinating clean-up events around the country.
"The first International Coastal Clean-Up was held in 1996, as an initiative of the plastics industry and KZN Wildlife to remove the most visible plastics litter from the coastal area. Since then, it has become an annual, countrywide event which is supported by the glass, cans, paper and board industries, as well as oil converters, recyclers, brand owners, retailers, Brand SA, KZN Wildlife, Tuffy Manufacturing, Pick n Pay, Garbie (East Rand Plastics) and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA)," Steyn says.
In September, various clean-up projects will take place in cities, towns, communities and schools as individuals are encouraged to pay attention to the problem of waste around them, and get their friends, neighbours or colleagues involved with recycling.
"Plastics|SA and our partners in this project will be sponsoring 250,000 bright yellow refuse bags which will be donated for clean-up projects around South Africa," Steyn says. Highlights of this week will once again be National Recycling Day on Friday, 18 September 2015 and the annual International Coastal Clean-Up Day on Saturday, 19 September 2015.
Concludes Steyn: "The local plastics industry has set itself an aspirational vision of Zero Plastics to Landfill by 2030. Mother Nature supplies us with the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. If our environment isn't clean and healthy, neither are we. We therefore urge all South Africans to clean up and recycle the environment in order to give future generations hope for a sustainable future."
