Publications
Partners
- The City of Cape Town introduced its anti-litter mascot in its latest push to reduce littering.
- Bingo is expected to go on a roadshow to encourage children and adults to put their litter in the green bins dotted around the city.
- A recent study found that plastic items make up 92% to 99% of beach litter items by number, and 85% to 94% by mass.
The City of Cape Town revealed its latest weapon in the fight against litter: A bug-eyed character called Bingo, who will go on a roadshow to encourage people to stop littering.
Bingo (Bin-go) has big eyes, a green body in the shape of the dustbins dotted around the City, yellow tights and black-and-white oversized takkies.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the name was selected from residents' suggestions and because it invokes the famous Bingo the Dog song.
The choice was between Bingo, Binny, Nolitha and Phyllis-blik.
Older South Africans will remember an older campaign featuring an ostrich and the tagline "Zap it in the Zibi", immortalised in song with the famous last line: "Hey, what happened?"
Bingo is the latest in a long line of local and international attempts to get consumers to dispose of litter in bins or recycle.
READ | Mayor joins residents in Athlone to help them clean up dumping hotspot
The Cape Town Central Improvement District project said recently that it collects more than 110 000kg of waste every month from the Cape Town city centre. That's 21 000 bags of litter and illegally dumped waste.
The City also has litter booms across the Black River to collect floating debris.
A recent study on beach litter found that plastic items, including foamed plastics and cigarette butts, accounted for 92% to 99% of litter items by number and 85% to 94% by mass.
On-the-go snack food packets such as sweet and ice-cream wrappers as well as chip packets accounted for virtually all food packaging that was street litter, researchers concluded.
Excluding items known to be imported into South Africa, 94% of items were from local sources, the study found.
