Green conference paves way for a cleaner SALitha Communications has just completed yet another signature conference and gala event for the National Department of Environmental Affairs on 15 September at the Birchwood Conference Centre. Dubbed the 1st Waste Management Officer's Khoro ("Conference" in TshiVhenda), it drew more than 400 delegates from national, provincial and local government. This follows the promulgation of the Waste Act which is aimed at addressing the waste problem by instituting mechanisms of waste avoidance, minimisation, recycling, recovery, appropriate licensing, collection and storage, as well as implementing environmentally-sound treatment mechanism and disposal of problematic waste streams. The other theme of the conference concentred on capacity building and awareness. "The effectiveness of many waste measures, particularly those aimed at waste reduction, recycling and litter prevention, depend, to a significant extent, on changing public behaviour and attitudes towards litter in order to prevent waste from reaching the landfills in the first place," says Andile Ncontsa, CEO of Litha Communications. One of the outcomes of the conference was an agreement on setting recycling targets to help monitor the rate at which we are implementing the waste hierarchy, specifically, how quickly we prevent waste from reaching landfills, 80% of which are not even licensed. Cities like Cape Town have less than five years left of available landfill space. "Again, Litha was very fortunate to be involved in a conference dealing with an issue that lies close to our hearts. Our own social responsibility policy strongly reflects our commitment to greening and job creation.
| ||