By UN Environment
Young people on parts of the African continent sometimes turn to waste management as an ad hoc or extra job to make small money when they are struggling with unemployment, but often opportunities are scarce to learn how to grow in this sector and turn it into real business.
Here’s an example from South Africa where supporting an entrepreneur pays off.
Tshepo Mazubuko, a young person from a Johannesburg suburb, started his business from scratch to build a recycling company that is today employing 17 people and engaging over 800 waste collectors, most of them women from poor communities.
“I learned business in the street. After four years of unemployment, I decided to join waste collectors,” says Mazubuko. “I had to support myself and my family. At the beginning, I was making 200 to 300 rands (13 to 19 US$). It was not enough, but I knew that there was a lot of potential in what I was doing.”
Starting was not easy for Mazubuko.
“I was proud and happy with my first bag from the waste, but it turned out that it was full of rubbish without value,” Mazubuko confesses with a large smile on his face. “I had to learn how to differentiate between rubbish and waste to make money.”
After joining trolley pullers—street waste collectors—he quickly realized that more opportunities abound.
Mazubuko quickly saw the potential in waste and decided to start his business by building a small company to recycle plastic.
“At the beginning, I proposed to my colleagues who were collecting waste that I could help them with transport. They supported me and that was when I decided to buy a truck,” says Mazubuko proudly.
That was Mazubuko’s first step into real business.
Mazubuko then went and procured a small area that his stepfather used to own for producing bricks. He proposed the idea to his wife who supported him. Together, they took a loan to buy the plot. There was nothing on it. They bought few machines and started recycling plastic waste and created their company.
Today, KI Recycling Company employs 17 staff and engages over 800 waste collectors. The company received support from Switch Africa Green, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-European Union project, as well as the Government of South Africa. Read more…
