Probe into polystyrene dump at Hennops underway
The investigation comes after massive amounts of polystyrene and debris was found in the river below SuperSport Park last week.
A local environmental group believes that a business was behind the illegal dumping of a “massive” amount of polystyrene into the Hennops river in Centurion recently.
According to non-profit organisation Hennops Revival founder Tarryn Johnston, the Centurion lake was covered by “a white blanket of polystyrene” last Monday.
“It was heartbreaking to see,” said Johnston.
“My [river cleaning] team was unblocking the channels under the bridge when a large amount of small pieces of styrofoam escaped as the water begun rushing through the opening. They ultimately flowed down and covered the lake.
“Our team started scooping the tiny pieces of polystyrene, styrofoam and other debris from the lake with two pool nets and two fishing nets.”
She said a probe into the dumping was underway.
“We are aware of the illegal dumpsites on the border of Irene/Pindene.
“The pieces of polystyrene were up to 1 200mm x 500mm x 200mm so it was not ordinary protective packaging,” Johnston said.
She said it was believed the polystyrene was as a result of massive illegal dumping which was happening upstream and possibly used in the process of building.
“Upon further inspection I found a number of clues about other types of industries using this retrieved polystyrene, including salmon packaging from as far as Norway, medical packaging and refrigeration,” Johnston said.
“We do not believe that this was caused by recyclers, the quantity is just too much, too huge. It’s close to 200 tonnes – and recyclers do not recycle polystyrene.”
She also called on businesses to rather pay contractors for waste removal and obtain a receipt for legal dumping before making payment.
“A rough calculation of the debris removed at this site is about 120 tonnes by tractor loader backhoe (TLB) and tipper trucks as Hennops Revival worked with the metro to get this out of the river.”
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Johnston also commended her “wonderfully creative” team which managed to get it out.
“We had a small log tied to a rope being thrown in and bringing the far lying pieces closer to the edge where the nets were collecting pieces that we began to stuff into bags,” she said.
She said the total amount of waste removed from the lake was around 50-70 tonnes which would be collected by TLBs and tippers during the week.
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