Keep Clean
The southeaster does not sort litter. Whatever is loose on a Tuesday is in the vlei by Thursday and on the beach by the weekend. So we get to it first.
Join a clean-up
Two hours. One bag. Sorted.
41 250
bags of litter collected
268
clean-ups held this year
74
suburbs taking part
What Keep Clean is about
Cape Town is downhill and downwind of itself. A packet dropped in Bellville does not stay in Bellville. It travels along a stormwater drain, through the Black River, into the vlei, and eventually onto a beach where somebody's kid picks it up.
That is the whole argument for Keep Clean. Not that litter is untidy, but that it moves, and it always ends up somewhere we care about. Catching it early is far easier than catching it in the surf at Muizenberg.
A clean-up is two hours, gloves, bags and usually a stranger who becomes a familiar face. No experience needed and no commitment beyond the morning you show up for. Bins get emptied, drains stop blocking, and the pavement outside the school looks like somebody lives there.
It is also the easiest of the three habits to start on your own. Pick up three pieces on the way to your car. Keep a bag in the boot. Put your own bin out and bring it back in. Nobody hands out medals for it, which is fine, because the street tells you.
And the wind will keep delivering. That is why this is a habit and not an event.
Find one near me
Eight ways to keep it clean
Some take two minutes, some take a Saturday. All of them count the same.
Three pieces, every walk
On the way to the car, the shop, the school gate. Three pieces is small enough that you will actually keep doing it.
Keep a bag in the boot
The gap between wanting to help and helping is usually just not having a bag on you.
Bin day discipline
Out the night before, in the same afternoon. An overturned bin on a windy street undoes a whole morning's work.
Adopt a drain
One stormwater drain near you, cleared of leaves and packets. This is the single highest-value thing on this list when the rain comes.
Join a Saturday
Two hours, gloves provided. Most people arrive not knowing anybody and leave with two new numbers.
Take the before photo
Nobody believes how much changes in two hours until they see the same corner side by side.
Sort your recycling properly
Rinsed, dry, separated. A contaminated bag of recycling goes to landfill like everything else.
Start one on your street
Six neighbours, a date and a meeting point is a clean-up. We bring the equipment and the paperwork.
Join a clean-up
Tell us where you are and we will send you the next one nearby. Gloves, bags and grabbers are provided — bring a hat and water.
See you there.
We will email you as soon as the next clean-up near you is set.
Before and after, by residents
Two hours is all that separates these pairs.
Want to start your own?
You need four things: a date, a meeting point, a bin the bags can legally go into, and about six people. We help with the rest — equipment, a heads-up to the local depot, and a post to get your neighbours there.
Most first-time organisers say the hardest part was sending the first message in the group chat.
Start one with us