Projects
Pristine pathways Constantia
Launched in 2021 the Pristine Pathways Constantia team has been a breakthrough model addressing litter and employment through a collaborative approach thanks to loyal local partners such as SEEFF and Constantia Watch. By providing daily cleaning and monitoring throughout the Constantia valley we are able to maintain clean greenbelts, parks and streets. Complimenting the likes of the City's area cleansing initiatives we intercept litter before it gets into the stormwater network. The team works in various areas throughout the week thanks to logistical support given by the Constantia Watch swat team and the Friends of the Constantia Valley Greenbelts. A base for our operations is kindly supplied by the Constantia Residents & Ratepayers Association at Alphen Centre. We have collected over 10000 bags equal to approximately 20 tons of waste since inception.
Our unique reciprocity employment model of Pristine Pathways allows the teams to clean their own community of Gugulethu every Friday, they focus on areas surrounding schools, parks and ECDs thus ensuring children are free to move throughout their community free from litter and hazardous conditions.
Other benefits of the program include waste data collection and security monitoring, our teams are an extra set of eyes and ears for the community forums and the waste industry alike. This is valuable to all residents and local business owners. We thus ask for support from households and businesses that have the means and drive to keep their communities clean, safe and prosperous.
If you are corporate or private person who would like to either initiate this initiative in your community or support us financially please get in touch here.
Pristine pathways Sea Point
Launched in 2022 the Pristine Pathways Sea Point project tackles a number of issues, namely pollution, lack of service delivery and employment through a collaborative approach. By providing daily cleaning and monitoring in both Sea Point we are able to maintain clean beaches, stormwater drains and streets unlike any project before us. Complimenting the likes of the City's area cleansing initiatives we intercept litter before it gets into our oceans in Sea Point through the use of innovative litter nets. The nets deployed in Sea Point are attached to the stormwater outlets below the promenade which run down from the main road and above, thus concentrating litter waste for the team to clean out each morning. They also spend the remainder of the day cleaning litter from the beaches and the promenade. this consistent approach has enabled us to prevent over 3500kg of waste from reaching our oceans.
Our unique reciprocity employment model of Pristine Pathways allows the teams to clean their own community of Gugulethu every Friday, they focus on areas surrounding schools, parks and ECDs thus ensuring children are free to move throughout their community free from litter and hazardous conditions.
The project not only ensures cleaner beaches for the residents and tourists to enjoy but also safer environment on one of the busiest beach stretches in South Africa. This is valuable to all residents and local business owners thus we ask for support from households and businesses that have the means to keep their communities clean, safe and prosperous.
If you are corporate or private person who would like to either initiate this initiative in your community or support us financially please get in touch here.
National Government's Social Employment Fund
EPristine Earth Collective is proud to be partnering with VPUU to manage a project cleaning and improving the parks and public spaces in Gugulethu, Mannenberg, and Nyanga. This project forms part of the national government’s Social Employment Fund (SEF) to stimulate employment, secured by VPUU.
The project employs 54 people to clean the environment in these communities to provide clean, safe public parks and communal areas, including cleaning in canals. We also aim to improve public spaces to prevent further illegal dumping.
Special thanks to Plastics South Africa and their partners for generously supplying thousands of bags to capture the waste collected by the teams.
The recruitment process entailed thorough community engagement (through soup kitchens and CAN's) in each area, to ensure trusted personnel were contracted to work in their own community.
The project started in Gugulethu and Tambo Village (Mannenberg) in August and the Nyanga teams started work in September 2022. Together there are 5 teams of 7 people. employed by VPUU and paid by the SEF grant. PEC has been involved in determining where work is needed in these areas and in the ongoing management of the project.
The Gugulethu and Mannenberg teams are focussing on cleaning up litter in canals, thereby preventing it from being washed into the ocean. The Nyanga team is focussed on cleaning parks and communal spaces to create a safe and pleasant community to live in.
Regenize Decentralized Recycling Hubs
Empowering and assisting informal waste pickers while encouraging recycling.
Regenize is a local recycling company that aims to make recycling more accessible to South Africans and also encourages & rewards recycling with an innovative new virtual currency/ vouchers (Remali).
They support and empower informal waste pickers and collect from households.
Regenize is a local recycling company that aims to make recycling more accessible to South Africans and also encourages & rewards recycling with an innovative new virtual currency/ vouchers (Remali).
They support and empower informal waste pickers and collect from households.
Their residential collection model is successfully working in some suburbs in Cape Town. Now they are expanding their operations to include some lower-income areas and establish recycling ‘Hubs’ in these areas which can serve as buy-back centres for informal waste pickers.
The Gugulethu Connection
Bring a bag of recycling, fill your belly with soup, help the soup kitchen survive. It just makes sense!
Gogo's Kitchen, in Gugulethu, are now helping to promote recycling and clean up the community, by encouraging the people visiting the soup kitchen to bring in bags of recyclables. This, in turn, is creating a much needed revenue for Gogo's, to help buy supplies to feed the most needy.
Through our work with the Seaboard CAN we established a connection with Gogo's kitchen, and we are gratified to facilitate this new parnership with Regenize, which not only supports the kitchen, but helps to get waste out of the environment and increase the dignity of those in need, by giving them the means to offer an exchange for their meal.
We are helping to set up Hubs in Gugulethu, based on our connection with the community.
In collaboration with PEC, Regenize is also establishing community-based decentralized recycling ‘Hubs’ at various locations in Gugulethu, which will support a network of informal waste pickers, and provide employment. The first Hub was launched on 20 May 2022, with more on the way.
Once established in Gugs, they plan to expand across the Cape Flats. And as the communities can see the benefits of recycling, we all hope that environmental awareness increases as well.
Collaboration With The Litterboom Project
The Litterboom Project successfully removes 700kg – 1 ton of plastic from 6 KZN river systems each day. PEC have brought Litterboom to Cape Town.
90% of marine plastic pollution comes from river systems. Litterbooms are highly effective floating booms that catch most plastic from a river, which is then removed by trained teams and sorted on site. The Litterboom Project Cape Town was launched in June 2020.
Cape Town Litterboom Details
The Litterboom Project is intercepting waste in 4 of Cape Town's rivers, but we are still seeking funding partners.
The initial Litterboom systems operate in 2 river systems, with 2-3 Litterbooms each over a 1.5km stretch and 2 permanently-employed local staff per site, servicing the booms daily. Waste is sorted on site and results are recorded and reported monthly.
On average 1,75 tons of plastic is removed per week and 48 tons of waste was removed from these rivers in 2020. We plan to divert as much plastic as possible to CRDC SA when possible for processing into a concrete additive. The objective is to divert the maximum amount of waste from landfill.
The aim for 2021 is to first expand the project in the current river systems, to maximise the impact in those systems. Secondly, we plan to launch in more river systems which urgently require intervention. Eventually, we hope to have LItterbooms operating on rivers across the city.
Where are the Litterbooms?
Litterbooms are operating on the Black River in Mowbray and the Big & Little Lotus Rivers (leading into Zeekoeivlei) in Grassy Park since 2020. The new installations (indicated with stars) are in Observatory and Marina da Gama.