A country free of litter starts with you

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa’s (CCBSA) flagship Schools Recycling Programme, which first piloted in 2010, presented its first class of entrepreneurs in the green economy at Coca-Cola Bedfordview on Wednesday.

Graduates completed the programme through the Enterprise Development Programme managed by Tushiyah, a small and medium enterprises (SME) training provider.

The aim of the programme is to provide business development support to small and medium enterprises, by equipping them with skills that will help them run sustainable businesses in the long term.

This group of 13 entrepreneurs play a critical role in collecting waste from schools, and have implemented a collection rhythm in the schools and supply weekly reporting of data.

They further assist with the motivation of schools, encouraging learners and communities to reduce waste through recycling and the distribution of infrastructure to schools.

Chief director of Integrated Waste Management and from the Department of Environmental Affairs Mamogala Musekene attended the event and described it as the perfect initiative to respond to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to do one Good Green Deed a day to create a cleaner South Africa.

“Waste poses a risk to the environment and human health if it is not managed responsibly,” she said

“As stakeholders in the government, community and private sector we need to ensure sound management of waste to manage this threat.”

Mamogala said if everyone joined hands in the protection of the environment, the Good Green Deed would be an ongoing initiative helping to keep our surroundings free of litter and we could eliminate illegal dumping.

“As government we want to have contributed to 300 000 jobs by 2024, as the high unemployment rate and economic stagnation are key problems in our country,” she said.

“There needs to be investment in waste diversion projects that will benefit our employment creation initiatives.

“It is critical for us to apply skills development and education to this crisis as it forms part of us realising our vision.

“With the team of graduates today who are involved in recycling, we are taking steps into ensuring that waste-related threats are managed.”

Tsholofelo Mqhayi, head of enterprise and community development at CCBSA, said the graduates and CCBSA had an ambitious task of not only instilling a culture of recycling across all the schools, but to also develop viable businesses across the country, in the waste sector in a short space of time

“Although we are in the early stages of a long-term culture shift, we have already started seeing a change in attitudes and behaviour, not just on school grounds but in the communities as well, with a steady decline of littering in these areas where our graduates work,” she said.

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