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Deputy minister’s keynote address for thohoyandou clean up campaign: 24th march 2009, thohoyandou town hall.

Program Director
Executive Mayor of Vhembe District Municipality: Cllr P. Mdaka
Mayor of Thulamela Municipality: Cllr: T. Makumbani
School Principals
Volunteers and Distinguished Participants
Media of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen:
 

Our country has developed a reputation as one of the most beautiful places on earth and we have to sustain this perception our visitors have about us.

Human life is embedded in the rest of nature and inextricable from it. We therefore have a responsibility to protect nature for our livelihood and survival and leave an environmentally sound legacy for future generations.

We can maintain the beauty of our environments through regularly cleaning our households and public places such as taxi ranks, shopping centres, our yards and other public places.

Turning Waste into Money
Studies and our own observation prove that recycling has a strong impact on the creation of jobs. Recycling gives us the incentive of keeping our environment clean whilst at the same time creating employment for us.

Our government is making investment by establishing waste management infrastructure to sustain and create more jobs hat help to eradicate poverty. This programme has been extended to several schools within Thulamela Municipality boundaries and we wish that it be extended to other areas to broaden the benefits to the environment and the households.

Buyisa-e-bag, a section 21 company established by government will enter into important discussion with Thulamela Municipality aimed at setting up a Buy-Back Centre where households will sell their waste.

Our government is striving to educate the waste primary generators, consumers and business to prioritize recycling.

By doing this we can begin to create an informed public who can reduce waste and ensure landfill sites are utilized for food production.

Importance of Local Government Involvement

The local authority services communities directly everyday and is strategically positioned to play a prominent role in promoting recycling. We often encounter perceptions by local authorities who wrongly regard waste management generally as being a low priority issue. This results in missed opportunities for job creation through recycling.

With sustainable jobs, residents’ quality of life can be improved and so will be their affordability status for municipal services.

Conclusion

We generate a huge amount of waste and must be mindful of how we dispose of everything we use. Next time we go shopping, let us pause for a moment before buying items and ask ourselves these questions:

What happens to a product that has come to the end of its lifetime? How much packaging was provided? Can it be recycled? Is it biodegradable? Can it be reconditioned and used again? Will it be thrown into landfill sites? Does the original manufacturer allow you to return the product for recycling?

All these questions can be best answered through the Reduce, Re-use and Recycle Waste Management Strategy everyone must adopt.

Reduce emphasizes the need to avoid acquiring large quantities of items we will finally not use, resulting in larger amount of waste. We are encouraging people to use less and have smaller amount of waste.

For instance when we buy bread or prepare food for our families let’s always ensure we have the quantity we need and whose leftovers will not be thrown away. Let us also be wise and save money by making use of leftovers instead of dumping them.

We call this: Source reduction which is about reducing waste before you purchase it, or by purchasing products that are not wasteful in their packaging or use.

Reuse: You can also reuse materials in their original form instead of throwing them away, or pass those materials on to others who could use them too.

You may also continue to use washable cups or travel mugs instead of disposables. You can wash and reuse them as most of them will last for a long time with many uses.

They may not cost much to replace, but do come at a great cost to the environment. Let us develop attitudes of using resources longer like we do with bicycles, cars, washers, dryers.

We only need to repair them rather than replace them when they break. This is another form of reuse. New is not always better, nor it is always necessary. You'll be helping your environment and your bank balance will grow too.

When you do decide to replace something large and reusable, be sure to donate the old one to charitable organizations like the Red Cross, churches and the many others that are probably in your area.

These groups repair the items at less cost and then redistribute into other homes rather than landfills.

Recycle: Recycling occurs when you save and take reusable materials to places where they can be remade into either the same product or new products, rather than to just dump them. Making new items from recycled ones also takes fewer energy and other resources than making products from brand new materials.
Just about anything in your home, office or school that cannot be reused can be recycled into some products. You would be amazed what can be done with a recycled product.

A recycled soda bottle, for example, can be made into T-shirts, combs, or hundreds of other plastic goods that can be used for many years. Even your brand new computer case might be made from ordinary recycled plastics.

And paper products can take on different forms as well. For an example, an old phone book might become one of your school books or a composition notebook. Your recycling mission is not impossible! In fact, it is very simple.

If we all practise the Three R’s Waste Management Strategy everyday, we will make a meaningful contribution to saving our environment, leave a healthy legacy to future generations and most importantly, create sustainable jobs and improve our material conditions. Let’s each one of us stop littering and teach others to follow suit.

Thank you