Wesbank residents serious about rooting out dumping

 

Illegal dumping came under the spotlight as members of the Wesbank community and officials from the City of Cape Town met and cleaned up parts of the community on Tuesday, 18 June 2019.

The cleanup is the second of four quarterly events organised by the Vlottenburg Community Organisation (VCO) in partnership with the Shoprite Group. Other partners included the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership.

Wesbank was developed to accommodate 40 000 people, but currently houses about 80 000 individuals. With Shoprite’s support we were able to set up a recycling collection depot and host quarterly community cleanups of the riverbank where most illegal dumping takes place.

- Hilton Davids, community leader and VCO founder

 

The idea for the regular cleanups came after VCO mobilised the community to be part of Africa’s Biggest Cleanup, which was staged by Shoprite last year.

At the most recent Wesbank cleanup, 50 community members collected 113 kg of recyclable materials in under two hours.

Through our involvement in cleanup events like these the Shoprite Group seeks to highlight the value of recyclable waste. Another objective is to create awareness of the problem of excessive waste and thus facilitate the necessary behavioural change that will positively impact society and the environment.

- Lunga Schoeman, CSI spokesperson for the Shoprite Group