‘Litter’ our parks with waste bins to solve the litter problem

Johannesburg’s Zoo Lake park on a Sunday morning in summer looks more like a rubbish dump, than the wonderful ‘Central Park’ facility we are privileged to have in this city. I walk my dogs there most weekends and have become increasingly appalled at the wanton littering from the previous day’s parties.

I don’t know what it is that allows revellers to dump their litter – bottles, cans, paper plates, plastic cups, plastic bags, food scraps and all sorts of junk – on the grass, under the trees, in or near the ponds, often within throwing distance of a litter bin. It boggles my mind. And the often heard cheap remark that littering ‘creates a job for someone’, to me demonstrates a mindless disregard and disrespect for our environment and our fellow citizens.

So what is the solution?

Is it to have better policing of our parks and public spaces?  Is it the enforcement of fines and penalties? Is it fencing off our parks and charging entry fees? Perhaps it is some or all of these.

Or perhaps there is another way.

How about ‘littering’ our parks with waste bins?

Bins everywhere. Under every tree, across all the lawns, at all entry and exit points and alongside all ponds, viewpoints and car parks. A sea of waste bins, as far as the eye can see, such that no-one can go anywhere without having to pass a set of bins.

Not only rubbish bins, but colour coded bins which could encourage recycling. Green bins for bottles, blue bins for paper, red bins for plastics, yellow bins for cans and black bins for food waste and other rubbish.

What if the picnickers and would-be litterers were confronted by clumps of colour coded waste bins, wherever they chose to settle for the day’s party? Bins that were clearly marked: ‘BOTTLES’, ‘PAPER’, ‘PLASTICS, ’CANS’ and ‘GENERAL RUBBISH’. All urging them to repose their litter and separate it into recyclable categories. With park rangers or metro police circulating among the public, NOT imposing fines or admonitions, but EDUCATING people on the values of recycling their litter and contributing to a respectful and clean environment.

Yes, there would probably be an outcry.

‘Infringement of our rights by restricting our use of public spaces.’

‘Spoiling our public spaces by cluttering them with bins.’

‘Killing the natural beauty of our public parks.”

But then, would it be not preferable to see bins all over that park, rather than see mounds of litter strewn all over the place? Might we not end up with a cleaner park, which we could enjoy so much the better? And is this not a huge opportunity for us to educate our children and our fellow citizens on the values of recycling and in having a respect for our valuable public spaces?

How could we make this happen?

I feel sure that:

1. Recycling companies could easily fund the provision of bins with the value of waste material collected.
2. Suitably designed bins could be made as attractive as possible.
3. Bins could be securely fixed in place so as to avoid their theft.
4. Parks departments and local municipalities could collect litter more efficiently if their staff were employed to empty bins rather than having to pick up loose items from the ground.
5. Rubbish or waste, if contained in bins, would be less likely to be carried by the wind to other parts of the area.
6. By ‘imposing’ bins rather than fines, we could discourage the current culture of littering and create an educational opportunity for more sensitive environmental awareness.

In order to promote a BIN CULTURE rather than a LITTERING CULTURE, my challenge is this:

1. To recycling companies – to do the maths on the provision of bins in relating to the values of recyclable material collected.
2. To designers – to produce an eye-catching design for bin clusters, which are functional, manageable, secure and that clearly spell out the recycling message.
3. To local municipalities and parks departments – to think ‘out of the box’ and see the possibilities of staff education and in employing ‘public advisors’ rather than ‘law enforcers’ to patrol our parks and public areas.
4. To the citizens of our cities and towns and to those who use our recreational parks and public spaces – to see the value of a litter free environment, in which we can all benefit.
5. To readers of this post – to propose a better solution if you have one.

Out of the box thinking to save our rhinos?

Over 1000 rhinos were slaughtered in South Africa last year. So far in 2014, the figure stands at nearly 500. Here is an innovative idea which could help….

A young South-African entrepreneur has been recognised by Google for using game technology and YouTube videos to prevent high-school boys from considering rhino poaching as a viable career option.

Mbekezeli Khumalo, 26, from Soweto is co-creator of Trees and Rhinos, a video and soon-to-be game.

Khumalo is one of 20 semi-finalists in the Africa Connected Campaign, an initiative by Google aimed at innovative, entrepreneurial web adopters from across sub-Saharan Africa who have used the web to overcome challenges, transform their work and the lives of others.

The semi-finalists were selected from more than 2 200 entries from 35 countries. Five overall winners will each receive $25 000 (R260 000) and six months mentorship from a Google sponsor.

Khumalo is the team leader for BoxworM, a company that aims to fix everyday problems using technology and help re-position industries in this “new tech era”.

BoxworM was started when Khumalo and co-founders were at university. Their first project was an e-learning solution they developed for their classmates to help out with a subject everyone was having trouble with.

The company has been around for three years and Khumalo said last year they decided to challenge themselves to conceptualise a solution to tackle rhino-poaching using technology.

“I started seeing people driving around in their cars with the little red horn on the front. We asked around to try to figure out what that was all about and it was then that the rhino crisis really became apparent to us,” he said.

After research, they came up with Trees and Rhinos, which uses and illustrates the latest anti-poaching technology.

Khumalo, who studied quantity surveying at Wits university, said he could not disclose how the game worked entirely as it may alert poachers to new anti-poaching technology.

The game will be free.

“We aim to use the game to teach children who go to school near game reserves across South Africa about rhino conservation,” said Khumalo.

“We are doing this because while we were conducting our research we found out that the kids in those schools, specifically in matric, are starting to look at poaching as a profitable career option! We think this is devastating and this game is a great way to combat that.”

Khumalo said the game would be similar to Mario Brothers.

“It will have a story line where the player is a baby rhino that is separated from its mother. The player must work through the game and obstacles to find its mother.”

The game will be in 2D because it can be downloaded and played on even the most basic colour wap phones.

“There is no need for fancy phones to play or download it. That is important to us as the kids who we want to play this game live in impoverished areas.”

Text taken from:

http://www.4-traders.com/GOOGLE-INC-C-16118013/news/GOOGLE-C–Game-on-for-hi-tech-rhino-saving-18476079/

Follow Mbekezeli Khumalo’s intriguing venture on:

https://twitter.com/boxworMofficial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQynOyuOdo

 

Let’s break down our walls and build a community

Visitors to South African residential suburbs are often appalled at the sight of high walls, electric fencing and other security devices which surround many of our homes. They see it as divisive and quite the opposite of what residential communities should be doing in order to be communities.

But then, this has been our response to the high levels of crime in the country.  And as crime has increased, so we have added more and more devices – alarms and walls, then electric fences, beams, cameras, etc. etc.  Sounds like paranoia? Well yes. We have withdrawn into our own little fortresses, to the extent that many of us don’t know our neighbours, or even talk to them!

Worse still, we turn our backs on the police and employ private security companies who in turn provide us with a service called ‘armed response’ – a service which seems to give us some comfort. This is an illusion of comfort, of course, because most ‘armed response’ comes in reaction to the activation of our intruder alarms – in other words, after the crime or break-in has taken place. Is that real and lasting comfort, or even a solution?

It is true that the South African police have their shortcomings. They lack resources and manpower, are prone to insufficient training and suffer from low morale. So it is quite understandable that private security companies have successfully filled the perceived void in effective policing. (What we pay for private security in South Africa, exceeds the entire national police budget.)

Recently however, many citizens have realised the shortcomings of ‘reactive’ policing and are now beginning to operate effective neighbourhood watches and citizen patrols in their efforts to protect themselves from increasingly violent criminals. There is a realization that we all have a part to play.

A real success story is that of a scheme in our suburb in Johannesburg, which after five years is now proving its worth in crime prevention and better still, in community building. Such has been its effectiveness that more than 60 percent of households in our suburb are members of the scheme.

Known as SafeParkview the scheme provides 24 hour, seven days a week patrols by three vehicles, each manned by two high level security guards, who have been briefed by us, the residents, to operate like policemen in keeping criminals at bay. Where the South African police are unable to provide us with a regular, effective presence on our streets, SafeParkview , with the full co-operation of our local police station (the South African Police Service), has given us streets that are safe to walk in and almost entirely free of dangerous criminals.

The best part is that the patrollers, their co-ordinators and their undercover intelligence network, all report to us, the residents. And yes, they will respond within minutes to our alarm activations and they will escort us home at night if we should need them to.

It doesn’t stop there, because we have recently enhanced the scheme to include many service providers such as builders, plumbers, electricians, gardeners and the like. And we now have a register of many such service providers who have committed themselves to preventing crime and being an active part of our community when they are working in the suburb.

The upshot of this is that many of us now interact more readily with our neighbours and actively look out for each other.  We share crime intelligence and criminal lookouts and we encourage each other to employ service providers of good repute and those who contribute to the safety of our community.

This surely marks the start of real community building.

What’s next?

Well, perhaps we can start breaking down our walls and electric fences, sure in the knowledge that we stand together against crime and that criminals are not welcome on our streets.

My contribution to Eskom, the country, the planet … and me

I have just taken a leap of faith and installed solar heating in my home in Johannesburg. About time, some might say, but I like ,any others in the country have been seduced over the years by a perception of cheap electricity. That is until the power cuts started back in 2007 and have continued ever since.

After the latest round of cuts, I have finally ‘bitten the bullet’ and decided that I should start being self-sufficient. I started rain water harvesting last year and now intend to reap my share of the 300 days of sunshine we have in Johannesburg every year.

What will we achieve?

Well, for a start, we’ll have hot water, even if the power goes off. And added to that we’ll have have hot water heating (solar heated) in our coldest rooms in the winter. Best of all, we’ll more that halve our electricity bills.

More than that, we’ll use less Eskom power (they are woefully short of supply) and we’ll consume less of their coal fired generated power – good for the planet too?

When our household handyman, Dumisani, asked why we had done it, I explained that I felt we should all do something (rather than complain). And doing something, however small, would make a difference.

His response was: “If we all do a little……. then there’ll be a lot.”

Spot on!

Never mind the political parties. Let’s vote for people who can do the job.

Here I sit in yet another power blackout. And as I fumble around in the dark, looking for a torch, a candle, a match…. I fight to suppress my anger. My anger at this gross inconvenience, my anger that I was not given a warning that the lights would go out, my utter despair that this is the third blackout in four days, but worst of all, my frustration that I am taking it lying down. Perhaps I too have been infected by the malaise of extreme tolerance and acceptance of inadequacies, perhaps a ‘curl up and die’ attitude which is seemingly all too African in its nature.

Then I remember  how many traffic lights were out of order as I drove home. The maze of  unrepaired potholes I had to negotiate through the suburban roads. The number of blocked storm drains which have helped to turn the roads into rivers in the recent heavy rains.

I wonder how it is that I have become so uncritically tolerant and unjustifiably accepting. Perhaps it is my acceptance that within the skewed social dynamics of this new South Africa, change will take time and I must hope that things will resolve sometime. But sometime is now, 20 years after our first open elections. I can fully understand the frustrations of all those people in Hebron and Mothotlung who took to the streets in protest about unfulfilled promises of water and services. I can understand such utter despair. But unlike the people in those communities I am not given to taking to the streets, to singing and dancing, building barricades in the street, trashing buildings and goading the policemen sent in to keep the peace.

For me the pen is still mightier than the sword and this is my outburst, my toyi-toyi, my protest against those who are empowered by my hard-earned rates and taxes to provide services to me and my fellow citizens. The vital services of electricity, water, roads, street lights, storm drains and traffic lights.

I am told by the faceless recorded voice on the Joburg customer line that ‘power…. outages are being experienced in…’ followed by a list of dozen suburbs (not including mine, even though I am in the dark), and that technicians are working on the problem. No information about the nature of blackout (cable theft, I can understand, is beyond the control of City Power, but tell me!), no helpful guidelines about the expected duration of the blackout, no promise of further updates (a new recording every hour perhaps), no real attempt to persuade me that City Power cares about my difficulties.  With such scant attempt to win my confidence as a valuable customer, what am I left to conclude? That those whose job it is to look after my interests are not interested in me as their customer, or are they just not up to the task?

Rant over. Now let’s take time for more considered reflection.

If the 20 years of ‘transformation’ has resulted in there being people in key service provision jobs who do not have the skills or the ability to carry out these essential tasks, then it is surely time that we focus on this particular problem. Never mind the broad ideological rhetoric and open promises of political parties and vote seeking politicians. Let’s get people in the key positions who can do the job.

Short of doing it ourselves, let us make it our business to find out where the competent people are. And here I am not suggesting that all people in public service are incompetent, but by the results I am seeing, many probably are.

Let us ask our politicians, our councilors, our public representatives, our residents associations our  NGOs. Let’s find  where the most competent people are. Then if it is through political parties that we have to vote at the forthcoming elections, let’s interrogate them about their competencies and their access to competent people. Because at this stage in our country with its crumbling infrastructure, we need less political ideology and blind loyalty to party political spin. What we need are people on the ground who can do the job. And unless we demand that or our elected officials, nothing I fear will change much after 7 May.

For my part, if there was a Competence Party, with a proven track record of having provided services and staffed with people who are capable of doing the job I require of them, then I would vote for them without hesitation.

NGOs unite!

I met a lawyer the other day who suggested that we are all to pre-occupied with governments and politicians. We give them far to much credence for what the they do NOT do, even though they spend a lot of time telling us what they (think) they actually do.

She (the lawyer) reminded me that hundreds of non government organisations (NGOs) actually do their work, often selflessly, but certainly effectively – for people at the ground level. And this they do, in spite of what governments and politicians say or (don’t) do.

She went on to suggest that if all NGOs got together, they (we) could run the country. Now, there’s an inspiring thought….