Miss Earth South Africa celebrates World Environment Day

From the Thursday, 1 June to Monday, 5 June, 100 Miss Earth South Africa regional finalists connected with their communities across the country. Under the banner of the international theme for the 2017 celebrations, the focus of connecting people with nature inspired roll out community clean up’s as part of the 2017 '#WasteStopsWithME' programme.

Some of the communities engaged included, Soweto, Orange Farm, Daveyton, Roodepoort, Joburg CBD, Vanderbijlpark, Tshwane, Tembisa, Attridgeville, Bloemfontein, Polokwane, Glenashley Beach, Zandspruit, Port Elizabeth, Vaaloewer, Walmer Community, Ekurhuleni, Ethekwini, and Langebaan, to name but a few.

The 100th clean-up was held at Mshenguville Park in Soweto with the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure councillor, Nico De Jager, the High Commissioner of Canada to South Africa, Sandra McCardell, and the executive mayor of the City of Johanesburg, Herman Mashaba.

The Miss Earth South Africa team took the theme of ‘connect with nature’ and encouraged communities and local community leaders to take up responsibility to take care of the natural environment and public spaces in their areas as an opportunity to reconnect with neighbours, those who share spaces and use the environmental day of importance to kindle social cohesion through community involvement in clean up’s.

Joining Miss Earth South Africa clean-ups around South Africa were hundreds of volunteers of long-time partner to the programme, Tsogo Sun, Brand South Africa, Fry Family Food, Newsclip Media Monitoring, and the South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

Mashaba did the key note address where he said that the City generates 1.6 million tons of waste per annum, which is deposited at landfill sites.

“Unfortunately we have reached a point where our landfill sites are running out of airspace, and for this reason, responsible waste management is crucial. It is for this reason that I am particularly happy about the partnership between the City’s waste management service provider, Pikitup, and Miss Earth South Africa. Through this partnership, the City aims to mobilise our communities and stakeholders to protect and preserve the environment by applying basic principles of waste minimisation. Residents and stakeholder alike must learn to reduce, reuse, and recycle," he says.

He adds, "This partnership will also enable Miss Earth South Africa to activate school, community, and educational programmes which will support the strategic goals of Pikitup, and by extension, the City.”

'#WasteStopsWithME' is a campaign which strives to promote and engage citizens across South Africa to understand the role that they play as active and conscious citizens, that consider their carbon footprint, their environmental impact, and reflect on the amount of waste that they create every single day.

In this regard, Pikitup has a programme called separation@source, which encourages residents to divert waste away from landfill sites by providing residents, who form part of the programme, with a regular black bin, a reusable bag for paper, and a clear bag for other types of recyclables.

This effectively means that only waste that is not recyclable ends up in black bins. Pikitup is set to roll out the project to all residents of the City of Johannesburg in the near future in an effort to divert waste away from landfill sites.

In strengthening calls by the Miss Earth South Africa programme to keep the environment clean, Pikitup further urges residents to refrain from dumping waste illegally as this costs the City of Johannesburg R569-million per annum to clean street litter and to clear illegal dumping sites.

The Miss Earth South Africa organisation believes that '#WasteStopsWithME' is an active engagement opportunity that can be used to instill a behavior change that is needed to address the waste challenge that is unfolding, not only in South Africa but across the world. The campaign successfully launched in 2016 and has seen significant work being done from both a practical community engagement, education, and awareness level across South Africa.

World Environment Day (WED) was established by the United Nations to increase awareness of the need to preserve and enhance the environment. In the South African context, WED is a launching pad for the projects which role out during the month of June, an environmental month that includes World Oceans Day and World Day to Combat Desertification – these are annual events, and are celebrated globally for positive action in the environmental sector.

Educational programme director, Ella Bella Leite, concludes, “When you connect with nature and give your time to preserve, interact, and nurture this gift, it has the ability to build communities and, in turn, contribute to building a better South Africa. Our focus is to celebrate the month of June this year by building a better Earth for all. It is up to each and every one, as active citizens, to play your part.”

For more information, visit www.missearthsa.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.