World Cleanup Day | Tidying up for a purpose

JOHANNESBURG - In an effort to tackle the tide of waste in Johannesburg, City Parks and the zoo are asking residents to tidy up the areas around their homes.

Their appeal comes on the back of World Clean Up Day.

WATCH: Beach clean-up operation underway in Durban 

This year’s campaign focused on educating society about the benefit of keeping our streets clean.

It also paid attention to waste recycling opportunities.

An important initiative to take on Johannesburg’s trashy streets.

City Parks spokesperson Jenny Grodowski said, "waste is a huge concern in the city of Joburg, we are extremely concerned about the health concerns, the socio-economic concerns."

"So, we are appealing to residents to come on board, to join this campaign, to put Joburg on a new path of a cleaner and more vibrant Joburg. We can all make a difference in the spaces where we clean, where we play and where we work.”  

"Cleanup champions” say collection and recycling creates income opportunities.

One volunteer, Kagiso Mohume said, "our townships are not the cleanest spaces, so while we have so much unemployment in the country, it does not make sense why we’ve got so much backlog, especially in environmental cleanliness is concerned… let's get the volunteers with hopes that one day getting some fanatical resources so that we can create solid jobs for our people to take care of their environment.”

For youngsters, it’s been a lesson in keeping our environment clean but there are calls to bring these behaviours into our homes every day of the week.

Geodowski said, "cleaning up should take place 365 a year, thankfully we have wonderful campaigns such as… it's extremely important that we live up to those expectations of residents in Joburg."

"So, this is a 365-day campaign, we need to work together, government needs to do what they are mandated to do to keep our spaces clean, we also call on residents to dispose that litter responsibly.”