Suzuki Clean Ocean Project tidies up Hennops River

Japanese brand Suzuki has pledged to play its part in cleaning up coastal and inland waterways. Its Clean Ocean Project comprises various tidy-up initiatives around the country.

Suzuki's Marine business recently collaborated with non-profit organisations, Hennops Revival and Deep Water Movement, hosting a clean-up event at the Hennops River in Tshwane.

The initiative was part of the brand's Clean-Up the World campaign. One of the biggest rivers in Gauteng, the Hennops is also one of the province's most polluted as increasing urbanisation sees its banks and waters at constant threat from litter and other forms of hazardous waste. “Water is one of the most critical resource issues of our lifetime and our children’s lifetime,” said Tanja Maes, Marine manager at Suzuki Auto SA.

“Leading up to this event our target was to fill 50 trash bags,” said Maes. “I’m happy to report we exceeded this number by a fair margin. After two hours of hard work, our crew of selfless volunteers collected 241 bags; a figure which translates to just over 490kg of trash.” “The disposal of this waste was overseen by Hennops Revival and Deep Water Movement as they are familiar with the correct and lawful procedures required to separate harmful medical waste from everyday recyclable trash before it is delivered to the registered land fill.”

The Clean-Up the World campaign kicked off in 2010 and has been held annually since, with more than 9,000 people from 44 global Suzuki distributors volunteering their time. Suzuki Marine claims to have made efforts to reduce plastic packaging from its products. Migrating to eco-friendly packaging materials such as paper saves over five tons of plastic per annum, according to the brand.

Since July 2022, Suzuki Marine has fitted its Micro-Plastic Collecting Device to a number of its popular outboard motors as standard equipment. The filtration device allows for reliable collection of micro-plastics.