CLEANING BEACHES - SWEEPING THE RUBBISH UNDER THE CARPET

South Africa's benches are an important facet of the country's tourism potential. Coastal authorities spend an estimated R8 million each yea r cleaning benches. More than 50000 km of coastline is cleaned annuall y with most effort focused on urban resort benches, many of which are cleaned daily throughout the year Less than 5% of clean-ups are perfor med by volunteers. The amount of effort spent on cleaning benches has increased rapidly, over the last 30 years, but litter loads on our ben ches continue to increase. Clean-up programmes are essential for comba ting littering by bench visitors. However; they fail to tackle the mai n source of the problem, which is inappropriate solid waste management policies on land.