As a responsible corporate citizen, Oricol Environmental Services is always looking for ways to help keep the environment clean and free of waste.
In the wake of the massive storm which swept through Durban last month, we partnered with the Durban Partnership Against Plastic Pollution (DPaPP) to help fund the clean-up of the plastic waste that had collected in the waterways around the city and had found its way into the uMngeni River.
We donated funds to the DPaPP’s labour-based project that used unemployed workers to fill as many bags of plastic waste the organisation as it could afford.
Oricol’s donation helped pay for members of the local Briardene settlement to participate in the clean-up that focused on the Blue Lagoon Beach north of the uMngeni River and the hard-to-reach inter-tidal mangrove areas between the M4 Bridge and Athlone Bridge (adjacent to Riverside Road).
Over 200 bags of plastic litter were collected by the Briardene community members. In total over 1 000 bags of litter, consisting mostly of plastic material, were collected.
According to the organisation’s Facebook page, the effort “has literally prevented tons of plastic from harming our ocean.”
Around the world, an estimated one million birds and 100 000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year when they become trapped in plastic or eat it. It is one of the biggest threats to all whales and dolphins occurring throughout the world’s oceans.
The clean-up project and its financing were managed by DPaPP’s lead partner, the Durban Green Corridor, which is an audited non-profit company.
