Cape Town - The Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) mission to clean up its busy precinct has begun to pay off, with over 1 225 tonnes of litter and illegally dumped waste removed from the streets in town.
The Improvement District’s trash overhaul came after calls by the City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis launched the #SpringCleanCT campaign to bring to an end to insistent littering and illegal dumping in the Mother City last year.
CCID Communications Manager Sharon Sorour-Morris said the clean-up initiatives were recorded during the past financial year from July 1, 2021, until June 30, 2022, and were celebrated at the CCID’s 2022 Annual General Meeting, where CEO Tasso Evangelinos stressed that tackling unwanted litter and illegal dumping was a priority and contributed towards creating a successful and welcoming downtown for locals, visitors and investors.
“Our teams were able to remove over 1 225 tonnes of litter and illegally dumped waste, enough to fill a landfill, using an astonishing 184 330 bags.
“They were also re-bagged 652 overflowing black wheelie-bin bags and cleared 37,513 kg of debris from stormwater drains,” the improvement district revealed.
CCID Urban Development Manager Kally Benito said retaining the CBD’s desirability as an investment destination continues to be the driving force behind the CCID’s efforts to curb littering and illegal dumping.
She said: “Illegal dumping, graffiti tagging, cigarette-butt litter and waste that spills out of torn litter bags remain the biggest challenges for CCID Urban Management. That said, downtown Cape Town is still one of the country’s most well-kept CBDs, which speaks to the department’s ability to overcome these obstacles in collaboration with its partners, namely J&M Cleaning Services, Straatwerk, as well as the City of Cape Town.”
“Keeping the CBD clean has always been an expensive task. Even back in 2019, the department spent R30 000 per day to clean the CBD, amounting to an annual spend of R11 million. This spending was in addition to the standard removal of waste, which includes litter and organic matter such as leaves, twigs, and soil, by the City of Cape Town. The cost is much higher now.”
“Thankfully, this investment in clean-up initiatives, like the 305 cigarette-butt bins we’ve strategically placed in the CBD, is proving effective. We removed 682.5 kg of cigarette-butt litter from these bins last year alone.”
“Once again, the CCID has shown what we can achieve through teamwork. We, therefore, want to thank our incredible cleaning and maintenance partners who’ve helped us keep the CBD clean night and day.
“Despite the increasing numbers of people entering the CBD daily, our collective efforts have successfully removed masses of illegally dumped waste and reignited the public's interest in our beautiful CBD,” Benito said.
