‘Please stop dumping’ urges resident
The residents are hoping to inspire others to look after their surroundings and treat the cause.
Two Eldoraigne residents, Koos and Ina Steyn, took it upon themselves to make an impact in their neighbourhood by clearing illegal dumping.
Koos Steyn told Rekord that he and his wife cleared loads of trash, pruned trees and cut overgrown grass that had been an eyesore at the corner of Nicator Drive and Theuns van Niekerk Street.
“We just had enough after someone dumped years of newspapers and other trash right here on the side of the road.
“Our councillor Cindy [Billson] brought us the yellow plastic bags that the municipality uses and I filled up nine of them with just paper.”
Steyn said as the trash lay there, other residents began to dump their trash there too.
“We found nappies, clothing, even a toilet. There were another two bags just filled with fabric cut-offs,” he said.
The waste was dumped along a stormwater sluice off the road.
“We walk this route quite often, sometimes I jog this route. If you have to look at this, it makes you depressed and negative, it’s a filthy place.
That is the main reason we started.”
Steyn said that they cleaned the first 10m of the road, and the housing complex further down its portion.
“I just hope to convince the people along the road to look after the piece adjacent to their property.”
Steyn said his wife was the one who started the clean-up.
“Every time we walked past, she said to me it looks so bad. Why are people dumping here?”
He said they hoped telling their story would help address the cause, not the result.
“Please don’t dump your trash,” was his message to locals.
“If you don’t, then clean-up projects won’t be necessary.”
Going forward, the Steyns are planning to clear out the grass and soil that has built up in the stormwater sluice to avert flooding.
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