Following a public vote, the City of Cape Town’s new litter mascot has been named Bingo.
“Cape Town, thank you for all your feedback and enthusiasm in helping us to name our City’s new anti-littering mascot! We can reveal that, taking public feedback into account, our City’s new mascot name will be Bingo! We are truly delighted by this name suggestion from you, the public,” says Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in a statement.
“Not only does the name spell out exactly where we want the litter to go, it’s also a name that is well known to all generations due to a popular sing-along tune. So Bingo is our mascot’s name-o, and we are now calling on you to bin it in the Bingo Bin.”
Voting concluded on Thursday 15 June.
Residents could vote on a shortlist of names which included Binny, Nolitha and Phyllis-blik.
“Capetonians showed great enthusiasm by responding with literally hundreds of name suggestions for the City’s new anti-littering mascot, that is modelled on the green bins one sees throughout the metro. In the end, we couldn’t decide on just one name, so we drew up a shortlist of four names for Capetonians to vote on,” says Hill-Lewis.
This campaign aims to promote a litter and dumping-free city.
The City of Cape Town’s Urban Waste Management Directorate’s 2023-’24 budget has a strong focus on increasing available landfill airspace through engineering interventions at landfills and building capacity for increased recycling.
According to a response by the City, the total capital budget for 2023-’24 is approximately R714 million. Additionally, dealing with the consequences of littering and illegal dumping, various cleansing efforts will receive a significant budget, including R47 million for public employment programme cleansing projects and R65 million for seasonal cleansing.
The new mascot will go on a roadshow as part of the city-wide campaign.
“The mascot is set to form part of a concerted effort to engage young people and schools about getting involved for a cleaner Cape Town.
“Once we’ve got a name, our mascot will hit the campaign trail to public events, schools, community clean-ups, malls and busy intersections near you. With this new mascot, we hope to keep building the movement for a cleaner Cape Town,” says the City.
