Flooding clean-up and recycling boost in South-Africa

An environmental clean-up of communities hit by devastating floods in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province earlier this year has yielded positive results, including the collection and recycling of eight tonnes of PET bottles.

One of the major clean-up efforts has been driven by South Africa’s plastic producer responsibility organisation, PETCO. Following the floods, PETCO came up with a proposal to focus on extracting PET debris from the environment. PET items had been washed down waterways and were blocking sensitive and critical access routes in the four communities at the epicentre of the floods.

The floods, which caused an estimated ZAR 17 billion (EUR 1 billion) in damage and displaced 40 000 people, destroyed the sanitation infrastructure in the province with solid waste dislodged from dumpsites and landfills creating a serious health risk for local communities.