Overstrand Executive Mayor, Dr Annelie Rabie, and her Mayoral Committee handed out the first wheelie bins to the residents of Hawston Heights on Thursday, 2 March 2022.
All 378 households in this development that is situated East of The R43 in Hawston will receive bins.
The distribution of 240L wheelie bins is an attempt to encourage the community to tackle the issue of illegal dumping.
It is a well-known fact that cleaning up illegally dumped waste is much more expensive than collecting from individual wheelie bins, and Council decided to provide free bins to the newer housing projects in Hawston and Zwelihle (C1 and C2).
The distributed wheelie bins will also strengthen the Municipality’s efforts to achieve a clean and healthy environment for all.
The Mayor also advised residents to disinfect the bin regularly and not to put hot ashes, concrete, large stones and rocks, sand, and large pieces of metal into the bin.
She appealed to home owners to please look after their bins as it doesn’t come cheap at ±R2 000 per bin.
“We had to scramble to allocate funds for the provision of wheelie bins in the IRDP housing projects. The need was identified during the IDP process because of all the litter scattered all over these areas,” the Mayor said.
Ward 8 Councillor, Arnie Africa, thanked the Mayor for the bins and stated he is confident that residents will take responsibility for keeping their neighbourhood clean.
He further urged residents to mark their bins clearly with their address as it helps to avoid theft. All the bins have serial numbers printed on it and is allocated to the registered home owner; which makes it easier to recover once stolen bins were reported to the police.
Community Services Portfolio Head, Cllr Ronald Nutt said the wheelie bins would be emptied on a weekly basis, as per the regular refuse collection schedule (on Fridays). The community was requested to place wheelie bins out on the morning of collections only.
The use of wheelie bins will also help minimise the problems experienced with cats, dogs and sea birds tearing open black bags on the streets.
