Ideas were put forward regarding ways to clean Joburg, and keep it clean, by public and private role players at the Clean City Summit.

A RED card aimed at curbing illegal dumping and littering was unveiled yesterday by Executive Mayor Amos Masondo at the Clean City Summit at Wanderers Club, in Illovo in northern Joburg.

Executive Mayor Amos Masondo at the Clean City Summit (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)

It was organised by the City to discuss ways to maintain the cleanliness of the metro in the run up to, and beyond, the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. "If citizens see anyone littering or dumping illegally they can show them the red card to say that it is not cool to do what the offender is doing," said Masondo.

The citizen would also have the right to call the contact number on the card immediately to inform the authorities, who would, in turn, take the appropriate action, Masondo explained. Residents could also send in photographs and details of the culprits to local authorities.

Eco Rangers
Another programme the mayor said the City was planning to introduce was the Eco Rangers initiative in schools. It would allow effective communication with the youth.

Learners will be encouraged to become involved in maintaining the cleanliness of their schools and participating in larger environmental forums. They will also keep their peers informed about environmental issues.

"The clubs will be made up of members from every grade who will be elected each year. One girl or boy from each grade will become Eco Rangers," said Masondo.

Clean, green and safe city
The problem of waste is a universal one, and the mayor stressed the importance of managing it properly. "We need to turn the world from its current path of unsustainable development," he pointed out.

The wealthy produced the most waste and consumed the most resources, particularly water and energy. "It is, therefore, the wealthy that contribute the highest greenhouse gas emissions that lead to the negative effect of climate change."

The City of Johannesburg launches its Clean City Summit (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)

In many countries, the poor live closer to waste and mine dumps. They are often forced to consume unhygienic water, deal with poor waste management, suffer from air pollution and live with sewerage flowing into the streets.

Masondo added that in order to reduce, reuse and recycle waste, people needed to understand the methodology of separating waste before it went to a landfill. To do this, simple colour coding had been proposed globally, with colours used to identify which item went into which recycle bin. Proposals were:

• Orange for paper, which goes into orange bags and bins;
• Blue for plastic products;
• Green for garden and organic waste;
• Red for medical waste;
• Yellow for hazardous nuclear waste;
• White for glass waste; and
• Black for non-recyclable waste.

Christine Walters, the member of the mayoral committee for infrastructure and services department, said Pikitup had started persuading people to throw litter into a bin or bag to enable the utility to do its job better. But citizen buy-in is crucial.

"As the government, we can put into place all kinds of initiatives but we can't take responsibility for our citizens' bad behaviour," she said.

World Cup
A key driver of the conference was managing waste around the World Cup, particularly at stadiums, when large volumes of people are expected in the city.

Ike Ndlovu, the environment project co-coordinator in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC), said energy assessments had begun in stadiums to determine the baseline and where energy savings could be made. "We want to ensure that electricity used within the stadium during the event should preferably be renewable or green electricity."

To reduce pollution, the OC was engaging with Hyundai, the car maker, to provide vehicles that ran on alternative sources of energy such as biofuel and hydrogen cells. "All FIFA family fleet vehicles and public transport to be used during the World Cup should meet Euro II standards as a minimum for fuel efficiency and emissions," he said.

In managing waste during the tournament, the OC had joined hands with Pikitup to educate the public about separating waste for recycling. A two-bin system that would separate wet and dry content would be introduced in the many areas of the stadiums; multi-bin systems would be installed at catering points.

"Further sorting of waste will be done offsite and recyclables will be collected by entrepreneurs and sold to recycling companies," Ndlovu said.

Civil society
Jimmy Gotyana, the president of the South African National NGO Coalition, (Sangoco), said civil society was eager to provide practical and sustainable inputs that would help clean up the metropolis for 2010.

"It is our belief that a clean city means a safe and healthier city where people want to be," Gotyana said. "We need to educate Joburg citizens and change their minds, attitudes and habits towards littering and dumping."

Gotyana gave his full support to the City's Human Development Strategy. "Civil society fully backs the strategy as this presents the City's plan in fighting poverty. The strategy takes into consideration the safeguarding and supporting of the poor."

However, he pointed out that there was a lack of formalised environmental forums in communities, wards and at local level. "Genuine development cannot take place without the full involvement of the community and representative structures."

He also urged the City to help civil society with the necessary resources to kick-start the cleaning programme.

Eco Points
Geoff Rothschild, the director of government and international affairs at the JSE, said it was important for everyone to assess the impact they had made on the environment in terms of waste and energy.

"We need to accept that we have polluted the Earth. Each of us has an impact and therefore share the obligation to improve the current position," Rothschild said.

He emphasised the importance of getting the community involved and educated about the benefits of environmentally friendly behaviour.

"As a business, many benefits can be reaped by being responsible. Good reputation is good for the bottom line, but reputation means nothing if there is no real commitment in backing up the actions that are being taken."

Other topics that were covered included environmental awareness and designing environmentally friendly, energy saving buildings. After the presentations, the junior mayor and eight other committee members held a debate, Youth Talking Rubbish.

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