Thousands of South Africans rolled up their sleeves, put on their rubber gloves and took to the beaches on Saturday, 15 September 2018 as part of the first World Clean-up Day - the largest peacetime civic action in human history. Stretching across 24 different time zones, involving 144 countries and more than 13 million volunteers worldwide, World Clean-up Day started in … [Read more...]
Could mushrooms solve the war on plastic?
Fungi could be the key to winning the war on plastic, leading scientists at Kew Gardens has said. The first ever report on the state of the world’s fungi has today revealed that if the natural properties of fungus can be harnessed and developed, plastic could be broken down naturally in weeks rather than years. Kew Gardens and a team of over 100 scientists from 18 … [Read more...]
A teenager’s plan to trawl for plastic in the Pacific becomes reality
Few things exercise green sensibilities more these days than marine plastic litter. The detritus looks unsightly when it washes up on beaches, and cruel when it chokes photogenic sea creatures. Scientists estimate that perhaps 8m tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean each year, discharged by rivers or shed from ships. Plenty stays close to shore. Some, though, is carried by … [Read more...]
Nuclear mud dumping has begun in Wales
Opponents to a controversial scheme to dump mud from a nuclear plant off the coast of Cardiff have launched a last-minute legal challenge. About 300,000 tonnes will be dredged from the seabed near the Hinkley Point C building site in Somerset. The Campaign Against Hinkley Mud Dumping submitted an application to the High Court in Cardiff on Monday seeking an interim … [Read more...]
IDC boosts young rural entrepreneurs
Siyabonga Tshabalala and Nomuntu Ndhlovu took the decision to leave their corporate jobs in Gauteng and go back home to their rural village of Steenbok in Mpumalanga, to start a business. Both aged 27, the pair now run SiyaBuddy, a recycling and waste management company that has now created 18 direct jobs and 541 indirect jobs in their community in the Nkomazi Local … [Read more...]
Plastics industry encourages role players to strive for zero pellet loss
The South African plastics industry has reiterated its commitment to keep our water sources free of plastic pollution. Plastics|SA’s Executive Director, Anton Hanekom, said reducing the amount of plastics that make their way into streams, rivers and the ocean is one of the biggest focus areas for the plastics industry worldwide today. Plastics|SA was one of the first … [Read more...]
Going further than just #plasticfreejuly
After the hype surrounding #plasticfreejuly and the war on straws soars to new heights, the question is: How do we all take our waste conscious attitude further in a truly sustainable way? “Ultimately, we should aim for zero waste ending up at a landfill, so the #plasticfree challenge really should continue throughout the year,” says Leon Grobbelaar, President of the … [Read more...]
Popular food store trials recycling vending machine
Imagine an intelligent reverse vending machine for depositing your waste, which identifies it for you as recyclable or not. This is now a reality. In line with its recent announcement to achieve zero packaging waste to landfill by 2022, Woolworths has now launched a customer trial of an integrated reverse vending machine in its flagship green store in Claremont. “It might … [Read more...]
Africa’s largest PET recycler unveils expansion plans
Africa’s largest PET plastic recycler has announced plans to inject R200 million into the struggling economy to help South Africa meet its recycling and job creation targets for the next five years. The recent announcement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by BRICS ministers of environment, during the 10th BRICS Summit held in Johannesburg last … [Read more...]
SA faces a water catastrophe as state dithers
The Vaal River has been described as an open sewer, most frequently by people who live on its banks, despite protestations to the contrary by the department of water & sanitation. It smells of dead things and faeces. SA’s water crisis is not confined to the Vaal River, though it is singled out because the system supports about 60% of the economy and provides drinking … [Read more...]
SA surplus food should go to the poor rather than contribute to landfill methane
It is estimated that a staggering one in five SA households is food insecure, with more than 13-million people routinely experiencing hunger. This is a contravention of the constitution, which enshrines access to food as a right. In light of the government’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals — which include ending poverty; ending hunger; achieving food … [Read more...]
Turning plastic waste into owl houses
Owl Rescue Centre, a registered non-profit rehabilitation facility in Hartbeespoort concerned with the well-being of all owl species in Southern Africa, has come up with a genius use for recycled plastic that benefits the birds, as well as raises funds for a much-needed cause. The organisation’s founders, Brendan and Danelle Murray, recently decided that, moving forward, all … [Read more...]
Sea salt around the world is contaminated by plastic
Sea salt around the world has been contaminated by plastic pollution, adding to experts’ fears that microplastics are becoming ubiquitous in the environment and finding their way into the food chain via the salt in our diets. New studies have shown that tiny particles have been found in sea salt in the UK, France and Spain, as well as China and now the US. Researchers … [Read more...]
