Background 

Clean-up and Recycle SA Week is an annual initiative by the local plastics industry, supported and endorsed by the various packaging and retail streams and retailers. Each year, close to 120 000 volunteers participate in these clean-up activities that take place along roadsides, rivers, schools, residential and illegal dumping areas. The initiative is supported by Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), Provincial governments, Local municipalities, Environmental organisations, Businesses, Schools and Communities with the intention to promote and unite the world’s approach towards clean-up campaigns initiatives.

This year's week is once again culminate in National Recycling Day on Friday, 17 September 2021 and the International Coastal Clean-Up Day/Let's Do It World Clean-up Day on Saturday, 18 September 2021.

DFFE has been celebrating the Clean-up and Recycle Week SA through awareness raising activations to encourage the communities to know the benefits of keeping their environment clean and diverting their waste away from the landfill sites through innovative means either through reduction, reuse, repurpose, recycle or upcycle of their waste materials.

The Clean-up and Recycle Week SA’s objectives are clearly aligned with those of the Good Green Deeds (GGD) Programme as it seeks to highlight the importance of active citizenry in the protection and management of natural resources and pollution in the neighbourhoods they live in, rivers, the oceans and the role they play in the life of all South Africans.

During the launch of the GGD, the President made a call to all citizens to start taking pride in their neighbourhoods and open spaces making the initiative an active platform for the citizens to lend a hand in responsible environmental protection, management and beneficiation. And in that manner, the department gets to continue with awareness raising through different activities and mediums as it seeks to assist municipalities to accelerate its work on education and awareness raising thereby empowering communities to take charge of their spaces and identify opportunities for work and business in the environment sector.

The implementation of the National Waste Management Strategy 2020 is  top priority for the DFFE. To adequately deal with the challenge of illegal dumping, first and foremost, we must change citizen behaviour and encourage everyone to dispose of waste in a responsible manner. We must stop dumping household waste and fast food packaging in the environment.  We must refuse single use plastics when buying our favourite take-aways.

Plastic is the key focus area in terms of managing pollution. Earlier this year, the department published the new requirements for plastic carrier bags which require all to contain 50% recycled content from 2023, increasing to 100% by 2027. This will not only ensure circularity, but will see product design taking the environment into consideration.

Marine litter, including plastic litter is of increasing global and national concern.  For the past eighteen months, the Department has implemented a pilot marine litter prevention project in the eThekwini Municipality with a focus on five priority rivers. The main objective is to reduce marine litter by capturing and recovering waste in these river systems.

As part of the Presidency’s Employment Stimulus Initiative, the Department has obtained approval to expand the Source-to-Sea Programme into 16 coastal districts with the target of creating a minimum of 1 600 work opportunities.

To ensure all municipalities increase the number of households that have regular access to weekly refuse removal, we have agreed with National Treasury that cash strapped municipalities can now use a portion of the MIG funding to address shortages in the waste management fleet and landfill operation equipment.