City pins hope on litter project to boost green sector

The Litterboom Project made it its mission to stimulate the recycling industry in Cape Town and to create green jobs.

The project manages litter intercepting booms on the Black and Lotus River. They remove recyclable products such as floating plastic and other material as it moves downstream. The City of Cape Town assists them by removing other solid waste and supporting their work. The Litterboom Project started operating in Cape Town in August 2019.

Founder Cameron Service said he believes in a source-to-sea approach, which includes land-based interception, education and innovation initiatives. “With 80% of ocean plastic pollution originating up-river, we believe that using the rivers is far more effective for interception measures than beach clean-ups and has been vital in understanding why this is happening in the first place,” said Service.

“Over the past few years, we have successfully been able to prevent over 500 000kg of plastic from reaching the ocean through the hard work of only a few strategically placed teams. (The project) is currently active in 10 rivers around South Africa - eight in KwaZulu-Natal and two in the Western Cape.” When it comes to education, Service said he believed that the sector could not be dissociated from infrastructure.

“We have therefore set ourselves the goal of also implementing tangible change wherever we educate communities ... this is in order to ensure that some improvements are made to their disposal models, in order to act on the things that are taught to them ... this is a shared responsibility by municipalities too, who are still important in the end-game solution.”

The city’s chairperson of the mayoral advisory committee on water quality in wetlands and waterways, Alex Lansdowne, said the municipality was determined to create an environment that attracted new players to the sector. “That’s why we prioritised signing a memorandum of agreement to deepen our partnership with them,” said Lansdowne.

“This partnership has ticked all the boxes of a successful partnership - more green jobs, cleaner rivers, recycling and supporting the circular economy.” He added: “I have the utmost respect for the Litterboom Project. I want other environmental organisations to know the doors are open to work with the City of Cape Town to protect our urban environments.”

According to a report by Invest Cape Town, the City generated 48% of the Western Cape’s waste. The report suggests that up to just over a R1 million could be added to the economy if opportunities in the organics, e-waste, plastics and builders’ rubble sectors are realised.

“Major investment opportunities in the province’s waste sector includes municipal public-private partnership projects of R1.3 billion, which are set to create 1,600 jobs over five years. Moves to ban organics from landfill will also contribute growth to this sector,” the green economy lobby group said.

“The City of Cape Town recognises the importance of prioritising a green economy. This is not only in light of climate change, but also in response to crises such as water and energy shortages and to new opportunities like aquaculture and renewable energy.”