World Cleanup Day saw South Africans from Benoni to Milnerton get their hands dirty. While they might have been scattered across provinces, together they made South Africa and the world, a little more hopeful.
South Africa (20 September 2023) — Across the world on 16 September, activists, ‘ecovists’, neighbours, squads and families made the world a better, cleaner space—tackling their respective corners of the Earth for World Cleanup Day and International Coastal Cleanup Day.
According to World Cleanup Day, the above groups of people were projected to be in the millions, spanning 197 countries and territories.
In South Africa, Cleanup Day calls rang from Bryanston to Amanzimtoti, and we’re spotlighting the groups that made their mark by reducing the mark of someone else:
Along the Hennops River in Gauteng, teams filled 545 bags of rubbish per Warren Rocchi, who was part of the group that dedicated their Saturday to the famous river and its revival. In Benoni, one of the biggest achievements for Clean Projects to date came about thanks to the beautifying mission that spotlit Homestead Dam.
In the Western Cape, Save a Fishie (founded by young environmental icon Zoë Prinsloo) and friends shared that they took 640kgs off Milnerton Lagoon Beach’s shores. In another part of the Western Cape, 95 volunteers joined forces to collect 470kgs of waste along the Mosselbank River. The Two Oceans Aquarium Trash Bash collected 733.35kg of trash from Monwabisi Beach.
And on other coastlines, just under 2 tonnes of waste were collected at Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal as shared by Adopt-a-River.
While there were so many more initiatives that took place in honour of the Earth tackling roads, parks and beaches, the momentum can’t stagnate until next year’s Cleanup call!
Recycle what you can, reuse what you can’t and remember that every sustainable action you make does not go to waste.
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