The Litterboom Project is about to have a more significant imprint on the City of Cape Town, helping prevent even more plastic from entering the ocean.
Cape Town, South Africa (08 September 2022) – The Litterboom Project has made all the difference in preventing plastic and other pollutants from entering the ocean via rivers. The project is celebrating a new partnership with the City of Cape Town which is the perfect collaboration between the private and public sectors.
The Litterboom Project was started in 2017 and it is very simple. The organisation places a “boom” across a river that then prevents plastic from heading further down the river. A team then cleans this boom regularly to ensure the system remains effective.
“We use a large pipe that we anchor across the river, which acts as a catchment for all surface level plastics- which are predominantly HDPE and PET.
This preventative measure is set up strategically where it can collect the most rubbish and where our team collect, sort and send the plastic off for recycling.
This solution is something that continues to evelolve, however we are incredibly happy with how much of an impact it has made on the water quality and the quantity of plastic we have prevented being pushed into the ocean!”
The project has worked tirelessly to keep the areas where they work, free of litter. In the first year and a half, the team successfully prevented over 300,000kgs of plastic from heading downstream towards the ocean.
In a big move, the City of Cape Town is partnering with the Litterboom Project to see more of the city’s rivers boomed and cleared of plastic. The team took to social media to celebrate the signing of the contract.
“GOOD NEWS: After 3 years and a pandemic, we are very grateful to have finally signed our MOA with the City of Cape Town.
This first step towards a meaningful public-private partnership looks at a model of resource sharing and the responsibility to furnish supplies to our teams, such as bags and, of course, regular collections from our current and expanding sites.
We look forward to streamlining these resources into our river and land-based programmes, alongside the various recycling and innovation programmes.A big thanks to Rondebosch Golf Course for their support since inception and, of course, Pristine Earth Collective for all of the groundwork they have done.
We look forward to working with the likes of these and other businesses and projects as we grow our footprint in Cape Town, to restore our rivers and oceans to their original clean state.”
You can find out more about the Litterboom Project via the website here.
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