Click here to add your own text
KZN Amanzimtoti River Catchment Project
Inkwazi Isu (Fisheagle Project) is the brainchild of a group of collaborators from Industry and Civil society who engaged with the eThekwini Municipality and put together a project to address education, infrastructure development and an Innovation Hub, to develop new ideas for entrepreneurs, to highlight plastic pollution on the KZN South Coast.
In Amanzimtoti, the stakeholders have all come together to design and implement a comprehensive difference in the way plastic waste is managed. After the last flash floods that covered the beaches with tonnes of plastic, local NGO Clean Surf Project decided that more had to be done than simply picking up after the problem. Two immediate interventions were required and the Inkwazi Isu was born. The KZN Marine Waste Network South Coast was formed and industry leaders including Coca Cola Beverages South Africa, SASOL, PETCO, Polyco, Polystyrene Association of SA, Plastics SA and local community leaders got together to address the situation. Coca Cola Beverages South Africa sponsored a Beach Rake with a Unimog, a multi purpose vehicle, which is being operated by Clean Surf Project and removes the smaller particles of plastic that cannot be picked up by hand, and therefore improves the quality of our beaches. SASOL funded a Baseline Study to quantify the problems and draw up a project to address the issues, education, collection at source, recycling, and river clean-ups.
Working closely with the Municipality, Industry and Civil Society, a support mechanism has been established to empower local informal recyclers, local businesses and NGO’s to overcome the current practices of treating used plastic as a worthless product and enabling the potential of its recycling value to be reached.
By identifying and facilitating strategic partnerships and facilitating shifts in the collection and processing of recyclable plastic, KZN Marine Waste Network South Coast through the Inkwazi Isu hopes to provide improved environmental education and training, the development of infrastructure to supply Buy Back Centres and infrastructure to assist collectors and recyclers and ultimately to develop a new locally based value chain for used plastic, which is essential for reduction, reusing and recycling.
Litter Booms help fight ocean pollution
World Oceans Day takes place in June each year and activities focus on preventing plastic pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean.
Plastics|SA has joined forces with environmentalists north of Durban, to fight ocean pollution by installing a litter boom at the Umhlanga lagoon. The boom was designed to trap litter and prevent it from entering the ocean and was launched in celebration of World Oceans Day.
“Our aim is to reduce the amount of litter that washes into the sea from the Ohlanga river. The litter boom floats on the surface of the water and acts as a trap that prevents all the floating litter from washing down into the estuary and into the sea. It then allows for that litter to be collected at one point. The device does not pose a risk to any species found in the lagoon.On the same day, a beach clean-up was organised by The Winds of Change Group and Point Yacht Club, who, between them, collected 400 bags of litter. Plastics|SA sponsored a public shark dissection and education session which took place on the Umhlanga Main beach, hosted by Steven Mabugana from Aqua Amazing.
Our partners on the day included DPAPP, Durban Green Corridor, Umhlanga UIP, Upper Umhlanga Security Trust, KZN Recycling Form, USE –IT, Tetrapak and AquaAmazing who did a shark dissection as part of the education drive to inform beachgoers of the effects of litter on our environment.
The Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter, launched in March 2011, is a global declaration and public commitment made by the international plastics community to address the issue of plastics in the marine environment, which includes Operation Clean Sweep.
THE GOAL: achieving zero pellet, flake, and powder loss.
Most plastic consumer products are made from small plastic pellets the size of a small sunflower seed (without the shell). Plastic makers have developed an innovative program called “Operation Clean Sweep” to help keep these pellets where they belong – in factories, trucks and railcars and out of the natural environment. Download the manual and poster below for your manufacturing environment. Every segment of the plastics industry has a role to play—including resin producers, transporters, bulk terminal operators, recyclers and plastics processors—by implementing good housekeeping and pellet, flake, and powder containment practices.
The Operation Clean Sweep Programme South Africa was launched on Thursday, 8 June 2017 at Ushaka World, Durban during World Oceans Day Celebrations.
Polyoak Packaging was the first Plastics Manufacturer to sign the Pledge to prevent pellet loss.
The latest organisation to sign the Operation Clean Sweep Pledge, is Plastics Bubbles in Springs.
PLASTICS BUBBLES is a family-owned business offering full-service, turnkey solutions for injection moulded and packaging products and have been providing industry-leading plastics solutions for over 40 years.
Founded by Stratos and Menelaos Moutafis in 1975, the business is now in the hands of the second generation of the Moutafis family, brother and sister team Aki and Virginia.
The Southern African Plastic Pipe Manufactures Association (SAPPMA) has become the latest plastics industry association in South Africa to sign the Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) pledge! CEO Jan Venter signed the declaration on behalf of SAPPMA earlier this week.
SAPPMA currently represents more than 80 % of the plastic pipe manufacturers in South Africa. Read more
Safripol Sasolburg is home to our High-Density Polyethylene and Polypropylene plastics raw material manufacturing. On Friday, 19 February 2021, Safripol Sasolburg and their Durban team, signed the official pledge to OCS – Operation Clean Sweep – to ensure that no plastics resin ends up in our natural environment.
Safripol is also a supporter of many environmental projects in plastics recycling such as Clean-up and Recycle SA Week and supports the Umgeni River Catchment Project, as well as recycling initiatives with the plastics PROs (Producer Responsibility Organisations) such as PETCO, The PET Recycling Company and Polyco, the Polyethylene Recycling Company.
Safripol is a subsidiary of KAP Industrial Holding.
Tufflex Plastics Products has become the first plastics recycler in South Africa to sign the Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) pledge, committing to being a responsible and environmentally conscious player within the plastics sector.
Seen in the photograph are Charles Muller, CEO of Tufflex and Douw Steyn, Plastics SA. Read more
In September 2020, Sasol became the first raw material supplier to the South African plastics industry to become a signatory of Operation Clean Sweep (OCS). Sasol is committed to providing chemicals and energy in a responsible way and respecting the environment by continually improving performance to minimise and avoid adverse impacts. Read more
Mandy Naude, POLYCO; Cheri Scholtz, PETCO, Adri Spangenberg, PASA with Douw Steyn and Anton Hanekom of Plastics SA
On the 25th February 2019, Producer Responsibility Organisations got together in Cape Town, to sign the Operation Clean Sweep Pledge committing to play their part in preventing pellets from reaching the waterways and oceans. Leaders of PETCO, POLYCO, The Polystyrene Association of SA and SAVA pledged to introduce to their stakeholders and members, training, information and mechanisms that will keep pellets where they belong – in the factory
Dream, Explore Become!
Dream, Explore, Become! This was the theme at the 2018 Sasol Techno X Exhibition which took place in Sasolburg and attracted more than 19 000 visitors. Plastics|SA and AquaAmazing teamed up once again to highlight the value of plastics and why they should be recycled. 9 Shark dissections over the 5 day exhibition, 4000 learners from 78 schools – it was no surprise that PlasticsSA received the award for the ‘most talked about exhibitor’ at this years event!
KZN Schools Educated on pollution
Science Week – The 7th Annual Science Unlimited 2018 Expo
Chloe, from PETCO, explains how bottles are made to some of the 5000 children from the Dinokeng area who attended the expo.
South Africa’s success with preventing discarded fishing line from ending up in the oceans or on beaches by using fishing line bins made from off-cuts of PVC pipe, is resulting in more than 77 new bins being manufactured for installation at beaches around the country ahead of the National Water Week campaign for 2021.
These fishing line bins stand 60 cm high and are erected at beaches around the country as repositories for used, discarded monofilament fishing line. Off-cuts of PVC pipe (donated by MacNeil Plastics) are used to create a uniquely shaped bin with a U-Bend end-piece that prevents the lines from being blown away. They are also resistant to the elements and corrosion and therefore ideal for long-term use on beaches.
Discarded fishing material (nets, mono filament line, and Cray fish trap anchor ropes) is responsible for damage to marine life. What makes it especially dangerous is that it cuts into the skin and flesh of larger mammals (i.e. seals). The material is also dangerous for human swimmers and boating as it can damage propellers of boats. By increasing public awareness about the negative impact of fishing line debris on marine life, water quality, and human welfare, the project’s goal is to reduce the amount of fishing line entering and remaining in the marine environment.
Plastics SA, the Dyer Island Conservation Trust and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Southern Africa (WESSA), MacNeil Plastics, DPI Plastics and the South African Plastics Pipe Makers Association (SAPPMA) are building a nationwide network of monofilament recycling locations to make proper disposal of fishing line more accessible.
As a result of the success of the Fishing Line Bin project, more than 386 bins can now be found at most of the popular angling beaches around South Africa’s coastline, with plans to extend this number to 500 reaching as far afield as Mozambique. More than 350 kg’s of discarded fishing line have already been removed, some of which has been recycled into bush cutters line. In excess of 500 fishing hooks have also been retrieved from these bins.
In order to introduce the project to communities and raise awareness about the dangers of carelessly discarded fishing line and other plastics to the marine environment, Plastics|SA and the Dyer Island Conservation Trust will be embarking on a special roadshow from Cape Agulhas to the East London Aquarium between the 12th and 16th of August 2019.
Sponsors of this roadshow will be Petco, MacNeil Plastics and Volkswagen SA.
Who should get involved: Marinas, Fishing Clubs, Local Organisations, concerned citizens
Volunteer to install and maintain a monofilament recycling location. We will, with kind donation from DPI plastics provide you with your own monofilament recycling bin.
- Install the bin in a high traffic fishing area and regularly maintain it, separate any collected material and send the collected line to Plastics SA for processing.
- Track the amount of line you collect through our online database.
Where: A high traffic fishing area in your area (marinas, boat launches, parks, etc.)
Interested?
Plastics SA is happy to provide a bin and signage for bins. Email us and let us know how many bins you need and where we can send them.
Where to Send Collected Line?
Plastics SA, P.O. Box 1137, Sun Valley 7985