Hundreds of pieces of litter, including branches, tyres and other forms of rubbish, has made the surface of a tributary leading to the uMgeni River look like a rubbish dump after heavy rains in recent weeks. However, the newly installed litter boom on the tributary along Johanna Road has made a massive difference, stopping the rubbish from flowing down river and ultimately, into the sea.
Litter boom uMgeni coordinator, Siphiwe Rakgabale said: “It is thanks to the north Durban community who helped us with donations of ecobricks and shade cloth, the material used for litter booms, that this latest boom was installed. We visit the booms on a regular basis and separate the different types of plastic and polystyrene and other materials that can be recycled.”
“Our volunteers painstakingly remove the lids of each bottle and put them in its own pile. Each boom serves a different purpose. Not all of them are there to trap and some are used to divert to the stronger, larger booms,” he added.
The litter boom project has been piloted in Durban for the past 10 years with a total of 10 litter booms now installed. According to Rakgabale the purpose of the booms is to target principally plastic packaging that pollute oceans, river systems and beaches.
