Johannesburg - City of Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba and different stake holders from the health care industry on Monday, donated 1000 school shoes to pupils at Masakhane-Tswelopele primary school in Zandspruit.
The collaborative move is a recycling project between Adcock Ingram Critical Care, Netcare and the City of Johannesburg which aims to assist hospitals to deal with their safe healthcare waste in a way that creates functional new products, including school shoes for disadvantaged children.
The innovative project uses non-hazardous intravenous infusion (IV) drip bags and tubing made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to recycle into soles for school shoes.
“This fantastic initiative is aligned with the A Re Sebetseng mayoral project, a clean-up campaign encouraging all citizens to take pride in their environment, community, and city,” said Mashaba.
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“I am a strong believer in public and private partnership. We, as government, have no chance of doing it on our own so it’s incredibly exciting to be part of this project that is built on a joint effort between a pharmaceutical company, a private healthcare provider group and local government, to benefit impoverished children. This is the way of the future," he said.
“When you have shoes, you have pride quality he believes is lacking in the poorest communities due to the conditions in which people are forced to live. “We are promoting a culture of reducing, re-using and recycling waste to ensure Joburg becomes one of the cleanest cities in Africa."
Colin Sheen, MD of Adcock Ingram Critical Care, highlighted the ground-breaking aspect of the initiative.
“It’s an honour for us to be working with the mayor, the city of Johannesburg and Netcare on this extremely important project. This is an example of what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together for the benefit of our environment and the upliftment of communities in need," Sheen said.
Picture: Supplied
The project started with a long-term commitment to building a sustainable business that has the lowest possible impact on the environment. Adcock Ingram Critical Care, market leader in IV bags (drips) in the private and public healthcare sector in SA, recognised an opportunity to extend the life of drip bag cut-offs and used drips bags which had contained non-hazardous solutions and were traditionally disposed of to landfill sites as waste
"Netcare is delighted to be a part of this worthy initiative, which not only speaks to our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint but also to our spirit of investing in the communities where we operate. By participating in this project we are embracing a more sustainable approach to healthcare which, at the same time, is benefiting local school children” said Richard Friedland, CEO of Netcare Ltd.
“This project is just the beginning of a partnership in which the three parties have come together to all play a part in reducing waste, pollution and landfill sites, ultimately benefiting all citizens, who can look forward to a cleaner, greener, and better city. We look forward to the meaningful difference this recycling initiative will make in the lives of individuals and communities as we expand it in the coming years,” Friedland said.