“There is nothing better than receiving a call from someone that wants to help further the conservation efforts of our work,” says Brenda Walters of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust (DICT). That call came in the form of Mike Campbell from Industrial Netting in Sandton. Having seen the storm drain catchment net project started in June 2019 in Gansbaai, Mike saw a need for the secondhand nets he had on hand. Industrial Netting has a heart for conservation and was drawn to the project. Mike explained, “We have some clients who return nets after a certain period of use due to regulations around their long-term impact. The storm net project designed to prevent ocean bound trash from reaching the ocean, seemed like a good way to get a second use out of this netting.”
The nets had to be moved to Cape Town so the team at Dyer Island Conservation Trust/Marine Dynamics called on one of their long-term conservation partners, Plastics|SA. John Kieser, Sustainability Manager at Plastics|SA arranged through recyclers PETCO, the PET recycling company, who in turn arranged with one of their large-scale mechanical recycling partners Extrupet, to bring the nets from Johannesburg to Cape Town on one of their deliveries.
“The team effort of all to make this happen is really incredible. This kind of support is invaluable in helping us save some costs and be able to roll out the project further along our coastline, making a real difference in mitigating impact of ocean bound waste on our marine wildlife” said Founder of DICT Wilfred Chivell.
Project Storm is managed in the Overberg area in partnership with Marine Dynamics, the Overstrand Municipality, under Overberg District Municipality.
Special thanks:
Mike Campbell – Industrial Netting
John Kieser / Douw Steyn – Plastics|SA
Janine Osborne – PETCO
Chandru Wadhwani / Jiney Jutley – Extrupet
You can read more about Project Storm at the following links. We have incredible statistics after the first year and are proud of the educational efforts around this critical project.
https://dict.org.za/blog/storm-water-drain-net-placed-in-gansbaai-minimising-marine-pollution/
https://dict.org.za/blog/storm-water-stencils-and-statistics-in-gansbaai/
