Over 180 staff members and students participated in a clean-up exercise around the District Six Campus in order to create awareness about plastic pollution.
The exercise was part of a series of activities commemorating the United Nations World Environment Day (5 June) and World Oceans Day (8 June), jointly hosted by the CPUT Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area and the Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Staff members and students in the Research Focus Area, the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the Green Campus Initiative took part in the clean-up in a bid to sensitise the entire CPUT community to the menace of plastic pollution and ways they may contribute to reducing the pollution.
“It is also a community engagement effort of the Climate Change and Environment challenges,” said Beatrice Opeolu, Extended Curriculum Programme Coordinator in the Faculty of Applied Sciences and leader of the Climate Change and Environmental Research Focus Area.
A symposium themed ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ which took place at the Saretec building on Bellville campus was addressed by six speakers from academia, government and an NGO.
The Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area (FA) is one of CPUT’s seven FAs. Research, teaching and community engagement activities of the FA are closely aligned to the United Nations sustainable development goals and the South African National Development Plan themes.
World Environment Day is celebrated annually. Week-long events and activities are organised globally to highlight the day and this year’s theme was ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’.
The World Oceans Day’s theme was also to prevent plastic pollution and encourage solutions for a healthy ocean. “This topic is important at a time that recent studies had provided empirical data that supports occurrence and negative effects of plastics in aquatic systems,” said Opeolu.
