While all of us stay at home and stay safe the eThekwini
Municipality continues to help communities throughout the area.
This month we look at some of the ways the Municipality is looking
after the environment during the lockdown:
The eThekwini
Municipality is helping Green Corridors with community-driven economic and
environmental solutions.
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| Jabulani Ngwenya and Sfiso Luvuno - Green Team community members from Johanna Road clear the waste from a litter boom on an Umgeni River tributary. | Image: Val Adamson |
When the COVID-19 pandemic is finished there will still be
many unemployed people. There will be many challenges for the government, NGO’s
and the private sector. New ways to earn income are going to be essential if
South Africans want to make a living.
It is for this reason that eThekwini Municipality funds and
supports initiatives like Green Corridors, the NPO which has developed ‘green’
spaces around the Municipalities communities. The aim is to help them thrive in
balance with the habitats around them. Hopefully these programmes will pave the
way for communities to access economic opportunities that work hand-in-hand
with environmental solutions.
Green Corridors has been working on innovations that deal
with urban challenges such as waste and litter collection and the removal and
repurposing of them. At the same time they are developing a model for the
process to be community managed for the creation of small localized economies.
The KwaMashu Materials Beneficiation Centre is one of the
NPO’s pilot programmes.
Here a small team work with technical consultant project
manager Jonathan Welch to find solutions to how waste can be repurposed and
monetized. This process means the waste is removed and economic opportunities
are provided for the community. This
helps the ecosystem and the community to improve and thrive.
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| Project Manager of the Green Corridor Beneficiation Centre in KwaMashu Jonathan Walsh (left) and Centre Manager Muzi Masuku (right) show Ward 44 Councillor Lindiwe Ncayiyana how the ''ocean pavers'' are made. | Image: Val Adamson |
‘’Much of our waste is not recyclable in traditional ways,’’
said Welch. However thanks to help from Duncan Doo of Pyrolysis Group, Green
Corridors is ready to begin manufacturing the ‘’Ocean Paver’’. This uses
unrecyclable plastic waste that is collected from litter booms in the
tributaries of the Umgeni River, which is mixed with crushed glass bottles
collected within the communities and made into square pavers for walkways
similar to concrete pavers used in landscaping and driveways.
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| Durban North residents will be well aware of the litter that gathers in the Umgeni River. This litter boom might just be a solution for the litter problem in that river. | Image: Val Adamson |
These litter booms are rubber booms that are slung across
rivers to gather plastic and floating waste, stopping tons of plastic and waste
from being washed into our ocean. The collection of this waste provides
economic opportunities for communities to work.
The waste is used at the Beneficiation Centre.
The Centre works much like a ‘’laboratory’’ to see how
resources can be used. ‘’We are now piloting a programme to see how these waste
removal and repurposing processes can be
funnelled into creating employment for communities and provide revenue
streams,’’ said Welch.
The City’s Parks and Recreation Department is also providing
waste grass and cuttings to the Centre to create Bokashi (anaerobic i.e. non
CO2 releasing decomposition) compost which can then be used in community
vegetable gardens / schools / by the City for use in parks and green spaces.
The Centre is also using fibre harvested from invasive alien
plants and combining it with concrete to make green pavers. They have also
successfully used builders’ rubble encased in welded wire cages to make a
gabion retaining wall. This can be used to stop erosion or create stability for
slopes. This simple skill might just be able to help unemployed people create
some sort of income by using very little finance.
‘’The programme has been funded and supported by eThekwini
Municipality’s Economic Development Unit and the Roads and Stormwater
Department as one of the endeavours to remove plastic waste from the City’s
rivers and to create a circular economy by turning the plastic and glass waste
into a product with value,’’ explains Garry Cullen, Project Manager in the
Economic Development Unit. The Municipality has done tests on the Ocean Paver
and found that they are twice the strength, resistant to chipping and slightly
lighter than an equivalent concrete slab.
These products could just be a sustainable solution to take
out waste from our environment, reducing the size of landfills and creating new
sustainable small businesses that create much needed economic activity and jobs
for unemployed people post-COVID-19.
For more info visit: https://durbangreencorridor.co.za/
Keeping the City
clean
During the lockdown period the Cleansing and Solid Waste
Unit (DSW) has been hard at work doing high pressure cleaning in high density
areas such as taxi ranks and the central business district. This can only be
achieved when the public adheres to the lockdown rules and helps to contribute
to a cleaner city.
Tips on what to do
with your domestic and recyclable waste
The Cleansing and Solid Waste Unit (DSW) provides you with
these useful tips on what to do with your waste:
·
Residents are encouraged to start home
composting in order to reduce waste that is landfilled.
·
Please only place your refuse outside your
property on the normal collection day.
·
All waste coming out of a property where someone
has been diagnosed with, or is showing symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, is to be
double bagged in black bags.
Orange Bag Recycling
Programme to open in June
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| Orange Bags are back from 1 June 2020 | Image: eThekwini Municipality |
The Kerbside Orange Bag Recycling Programme will begin again
on 1 June 2020.
Residents are encouraged to limit the amount of recyclables
generated and to rather reuse or up-cycle or store recyclables on their
properties.
The City would like to thank residents for using this
programme and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
For refuse removal enquiries, residents can contact the DSW
Helpline on 031 311 8804
For more info visit: www.durban.gov.za
