Five hundred green desks will be made from recycled waste for needy schools in and around Cape Town. This is due to the recycling culture that is continuing to grow in the Western Cape as event organisers push #GoGreen campaigns.

This was seen at the Two Oceans Marathon which recently took place in the Cape. More than 39,000kg of waste was collected by designated clean-up crews along the route, majority of which was plastic waste, which has a high recycling value.

Douw Steyn, sustainability director at Plastics|SA, said clean-up crews worked very hard to ensure that this packaging was kept out of the environment and off the streets. Members of these crews come from the areas of Masiphumelele, Ocean View and Athlone.

“Many of the members of these clean-up crews have been working with us for the past 10 years on race days and are trained to quickly and effectively sweep the areas,” he said.

Steyn said it was clear from this year’s events that athletes and spectators had a heightened awareness about the importance of not littering and keeping their environmental footprint as small as possible.

“The organisers of this year’s Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon in particular did an excellent job with their #GoGreen campaign that was launched prior to the race,” Douw said. “This is anti-littering movement which, coupled with our waste management plan, offered a sustainable way to collect and process the non-organic waste which was generated during race week.

“All event waste will be recycled and transformed into approximately 500 green desks for needy schools in and around Cape Town, thanks to a partnership between the Wildlands Trust and POLYCO,” he added.

The clean-up crews were also responsible for collecting the waste generated by spectators attending the SA Navy Festival and the Cape Town Cycle Tour in March.

Steyn said although the cycle race was cancelled due to extremely windy conditions, clean-up teams were hard at work prior to the race day and after to ensure that the roads were left litter-free.