Litter is the most visual problem in the Vlei, but not the most serious. Litter needs to be addressed from three angles:
- Preventing litter ingress at source
- Capturing litter before it enters the vlei
- Collecting litter once it is in the vlei – community action
Preventing litter ingress at source
There are many options available to contribute to this. This is the most long-term sustainable approach, and includes lobbying to reduce the use of packaging material in industry. There are also several initiatives adding value to waste to incentivise collection. Community involvement in exploring, initialising and maintaining these initiatives are needed.
- PackaChing A recycle truck with a kiosk trailer attached drives through the community and parks at designated areas once a week to collect bags of separated recyclable plastic, paper, metal cans and glass. The concept currently does not include collection of the problem litter – polystyrene and chips packets which is the main composition of the litter in the canal currently.
- Eco-bricks
- Bags made out of crisp packets (see e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-sJdcdVmk )
- Polystyrene recycling network
- Precious plastic “We create tools that make it easier to start recycling plastic.” An open source blueprint to make machines from scrap parts to source, melt and create a variety of plastic products.
Capturing litter before it enters the vlei
This is currently done through litter nets, which are ineffective when it rains.
A better solution is the construction of a well engineered litter trap. ZAA engineers have designed a trap as their community project that also contributes to sediment and nutrient removal. The next step is to obtain an environmental impact assessment, and then source funds to build it.
This post on litter trap progress outlines the actions taken up until July 2017.
Collecting litter once it is in the vlei – community action
Once the litter is in the vlei the only option is to collect it by ha
It is a sad reality that some 400 kilometres of once-were-rivers are now concreted canals. While there was an engineering need to “control” the rivers of the Cape Flats for human settlement in the mid-C20, the cultural fall-out from that is that they are now almost universally seen as – and therefore used as – garbage disposal systems.
The Zandvlei catchment includes all the rivers rising on the backslopes of Constantia, Tokai, and the Flats south of Wynberg ridge line. All of them, in different ways, disgorge loads of pollution into Zandvlei. While addressing chemical pollution from urban, industrial and agricultural sources is a “big picture” issue, dealing with solid pollution is in one sense easier but also backbreaking – and at times heartbreaking.
Stepping into this battle was Marina da Gama resident Mike Ryder, who almost single-handedly installed a system of litter nets in the lower Sand River canal (the major source of solid pollution). For several years he managed a team to clear them, as well as maintaining and repairing the nets. Nearing the end of his tether due to a lack of support, the nets project was taken over by the Trust in 2020.
People living on and around the vlei agree that, were it not for those nets, the vlei would be a cesspool of floating muck. More recently the Trust embarked on designing a set of much more resilient metal litter grates. They were gifted to the nature reserve with the hope and expectation they would be installed upstream of the litter nets “soon” as a first line of defence. [We need to keep an eye on this and update if and when things happen]
Litter clearing has been one of the primary tasks of the Trust, working over the years with many and varied other interested parties, mucking in and clearing the litter that invariably flows downhill from mountain and Flats, into the vlei. The council does have a private contractor clear the nets, but from time to time these short-term contracts pose all manner or delays and system failures so we have to be ready at all time to step up and plunge into that canal.
But somewhere down the track there is a – at the time of preparing this page in late 2024 – a small glimmer of hope in the form of the City’s Liveable Urban Waterways programme. This visionary effort has its sights set on wide-scale river rehabilitation across the entire urban area. While the suspension of funding by Central Government severely hamstrung five initial pilot projects – all within the Zandvlei catchment, the dream lives on.
One of those pilot projects remains on track, although on a slow train: the implementation of a “bio-filter” containment pond that is intended to intercept all the pollution coming down the Langvlei and Sand rivers. In winter, the amount of trash taken out the canal can be anything from 40 to 70 large litter bags twice a week, along with old washing machines, couches, logs and the occasional animal carcass, from the nets.
Our efforts to fight the scurge of litter is only possible with your support. Help us continue this vital work.