NEWS NEWS
GOOD
10
14 March 2017
Residents join in cleaning up our coast Sarah Taylor
H
e dubs himself a conservation sheriff and he is a man with a mission. Since September 2016, Hermanus local and avid hiker Antonio Da Silva-Swart has taken upon himself to organise public coastal clean-ups along the Cape Whale Coast – and he plans to take it even further. His biggest bug bear is the significant amount of plastic marine waste dumped at sea from ships and boats, which ends up as unsightly pollution on our shores and which can endanger wildlife. “This is not just a once-off,” he says. “It is a continuous, on-going problem.” Antonio’s passion for cleaning up the coast began a few years ago with his desire to hike from Cape Point to Mozambique in stages. “When I moved to Hermanus in 2014, I began walking, first from Onrus to De Kelders – a distance of 40 km. Whenever I had time, I would do another stretch. It was just hiking then, but as I hiked I couldn’t help noticing all the plastic waste
along the way. I knew I had to do something,” he says, adding that to date he has covered the coast on foot from Cape Point to Jongensfontein, a distance of about 455 km.
It’s not only marine waste from trawlers and private charters that he and his volunteer collectors pick up, however. The three-hour walk this month resulted in 25 large bags being filled with waste.
Antonio has been using social media to spread the word and encourage people to join his public clean-ups. The 2½ to 3½ hour walks, which he advertises on his Facebook page Coastal Cleanup Conservation and which now take place on the first Saturday of every month, cover distances ranging from 2,5 km to 5 km.
A large portion of this trash was plastic litter left by vagrants who appear to be living in the area, as well as rope and discarded fishing line, cigarette butts, plastic bags, broken glass bottles, food wrappings, plastic bottles and bottle tops.
“In that time, we can fill between eight and 30 big refuse bags with mostly plastic waste,” he says, adding that the most bags filled on one of his public clean-ups was 78 from the Danger Point area near Gansbaai. In the last few months he has conducted several public coastal clean-ups in the Sandbaai, Onrus, Vermont and Gansbaai areas. He has a group of about 40 regular hikers with new ones joining each month. This month’s clean-up, on the rocks below
Antonio Da Silva-Swart is on a mission to keep our shores litter-free by doing monthly coastal clean-ups. the Cliff Path between Sieverspunt and Bientang’s Cave in Hermanus, attracted 19 people, including 13 eager Hermanus High School pupils willing to donate their time to improve the environment.
The waste collected on these clean-ups is taken to Whale Coast Conservation (WCC) where it is sorted and itemised. The subsequent report is sent to Plastics South Africa, one of his sponsors.
One of the volunteers, 13year-old Stefan from Hermanus High, said about his participation: “I really enjoy it because it’s fun to be doing something with friends that is also helping to clean up the environment. If more people get involved we can make the public more aware of the problem and really improve our area.” Fifteen-year-old Madison, also from Hermanus High, added: “We need to get people to stop littering and to recycle.” In the last few months, Antonio has formed strong relationships with WCC and CapeNature and has been
given permission by CapeNature to enter any of their reserves along the coast for the purposes of cleaning up the environment. Later this year, he plans to conduct a clean-up along the coast at Cape Infanta, which is complicated by the lack of road access and will involve using a boat to remove the waste. Plastics South Africa sponsored his hiking gear, including his boots, T-shirt, cap and backpack. Vizibrand, a local signage company, has agreed to cover the costs for branding his 4x4 with ‘Coastal Cleanup Conservation’ and the WCC and CapeNature logos. Antonio is looking for additional sponsorship to assist him with this mammoth task of keeping our shores clean. “At the moment I am doing all of this at my own cost as a volunteer, using my own vehicle and fuel, while WCC provides the bags.” The next public clean-up will be in the Quoin Point area on Saturday 1 April. Follow Antonio on facebook/ Coastal Cleanup Conservation or contact him on 072 462 4271.
Another mounting problem along our Cliff Path is the unsightly presence of supermarket trolleys used by the homeless, many of whom sleep under the bushes. Many of the trolleys have had their wheels removed, rendering them useless. Local resident Leon Müller recently sent The Village NEWS a dozen photographs taken on a single early morning walk on Hermanus’s socalled ‘Golden Mile’. He says there were also discarded trolleys standing around Market Square and the amphitheatre above The Old Harbour. A local company has been tasked with collecting stray trolleys throughout the CBD and returning them to the shops, which constitutes an unnecessary expense for shop owners. Damaged trolleys can also amount to big losses and customers are urged not to remove trolleys from the shopping centres.