Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape is a hive of activity ahead Friday’s handover of a R27m multi-purpose Buy Back Centre to support King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) Municipality’s local domestic waste management and recycling.
The Deputy Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF), Ms Makhotso Sotyu will do the handover as part of the department’s mission to improve infrastructure that supports the environment and the people, the department announced.
Among the features of the new waste buy back centre is a waste transfer facility, perimeter fencing, a bailing machine, glass crusher, fork-lift and other operational equipment like cages, trolleys, digital scales and office furniture.
The deputy minister will also visit Coffee Bay Senior Primary School to hand over 150 eco-friendly school desks.
Ngcwanguba village will also host her to promote the Good Green Deeds Clean-up campaign in the area.
Coffee Bay is among a number of towns in the area which have high levels of unemployment and malnutrition, as well as environmental degradation, and it is hoped that these initiatives will boost the local informal waste sector.
Informal waste collection has become a vital enabler to pull rural and urban communities out of poverty, while also contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment.
The KSD municipality has already benefited from the DEFF’s provision of an environmental education centre that has been built at Viedgesville.