Mandela Day sees SPAR and Sanctor children do their part

The event was set up by the Project Nelson Mandela Bay Clean City Task Team, with support from SPAR and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

The pupils were educated on what litter was recyclable and non-recyclable. They were provided with different coloured bags for the items and then divided into teams to clear the area of the rubbish. At the end of the exercise, a total of 312 bags of refuse had been collected.

Speakers urged those in attendance at the Bethelsdorp occasion to take it further than just a period of 67 minutes.

SPAR sponsorship and events manager, Alan Stapleton, outlined how they had relaunched Phase II of the ‘STOP Plastic’ campaign.

"Even if each one of us just makes a little difference, it can lead to a huge change in our world," Stapleton says. "I want to welcome you here today and encourage you to have fun while doing something good for society for 67 minutes," he adds.

"But we also urge you to take it a bit further so that what you learn today you take forward in your lives," says Stapleton. "We want you to be aware of the plastic problem, what we can do to solve it and to constantly look at alternatives for packaging, such as paper bags."

Clint Plaatjies, who is part of the NMB Municipality waste management department, reminded the children that one of Mandela’s four primary ideas for a good society was to live in a clean and healthy environment.

"If it is not kept clean by us, we will suffer as humans, and so will the animals," Plaatjies adds. "It is our basic responsibility to keep the area where we live clean, and if you learn discipline at home, you can apply that to keeping our environment clean when you go out into the world."

"Today will teach you more about littering, and I know you will learn things and have a different mindset about managing waste as you go forward," says Plaatjies.
Sanctor High pupils Tameryn Hammond and Dominic Langston said that they were delighted to be involved in the project.

"As it is Madiba’s birthday, we are happy to be doing something good for the community. If you look around us, it’s something that needs to be and we want the city and our environment to be a cleaner, better place," Hammond says.

"I think doing something like this will teach us more about littering, and spread the word among our friends. Even if we just do little things, it can make a difference," adds Hammond.

According to Langston, it was good to start in the area because of the litter there. "It’s something to help our community [with], and we are happy to support the ‘STOP Plastic’ campaign that is being promoted by SPAR," he says.

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