Durban – The Green Buddies Environmental Club co-ordinated with various NPOs and other concerned organisations on their first international coastal clean-up event.
This event was held in partnership with the North Durban Honorary Officers and took place on September 17.
Having finally got the opportunity to sit down with the club’s chairperson, Selena Govender, I found out more about how the event went and what the future holds for Green Buddies.
“The clean-up went exceptionally well. We would like to thank the North Durban Honorary Officers (NDHO) for allowing us the opportunity to participate in the coastal clean-up initiative as well as the eThekwini Municipality for their support,” Govender said.
Together with their sister organisations and the NDHO, the Green Buddies Environmental Club collected about 254 bags of waste, most of which was plastic. The weight of the collected trash, estimated by the honorary officers, came in at about 1.3 tons.
Govender and her colleagues noted that a significant amount of polystyrene was collected and that the most common items collected were plastic wrappers and bottle caps.
These staggering numbers come as no surprise as South Africa was ranked the 11th worst plastic polluter in the world last year by research commissioned by the environmental group WWF.
As for the bottles and bottle caps, Break Free From Plastic named Coca-Cola in its annual audit as the world’s number one plastic polluter after its beverage bottles came to be the most frequently found discarded on beaches, parks, rivers and other litter sites in 51 of 55 nations surveyed.
“It was heart-warming to note that so many young people did their part and brought forward their best attitudes to the clean-up. I think the most interesting and welcomed aspect of the clean-up was the flow of synergy between the multitude of organisations involved,” Govender said.
The Green Buddies have orchestrated a campaign to raise awareness around Marine Month in South Africa, which falls in October, kicking off the campaign by hosting a Water Sustainability Poster Competition this past weekend at Firwood library, with several other youth-led initiatives in the works for this month.
They have also partnered with the SAPS Greenwood Park CPF Youth Desk to devise an operational plan to rehabilitate the Umhlangane River Conservancy, which runs through the heart of Durban.
If you are interested in joining the Green Buddies as a member or volunteer, drop them a message via Instagram or Facebook.
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