Zero to hero: recycling eco warriors are taking back the streets 

Each year enterprising individuals from vastly different backgrounds are honoured by recycling body Petco’s recycling awards. 

Dubbed “recycling heroes” and “eco warriors”, the winners have not only declared war on waste, but are winning their respective battles against litter and pollution, while also making a substantial living. 

Having bounced back from Covid-19 lockdown movement restrictions, waste reclaimers – from collectors to buy-back consultants – are saving the environment and livelihoods alike.

The Citizen caught up with 2021’s “PET-repreneur” winners, both of whom started recycling businesses from the ground up. 

Introducing recycling to Limpopo 

In the town of Zebediela before Matsobane Mawasha started his recycling empire Circular Green, waste collecting was a foreign concept. 

Despite having a job, Mawasha collected waste on the streets every day after work. 

Matsobane Mawasha, founder of Circular Green.

It was during this time when he began to realise that upscaling his waste collection efforts would benefit his family and fellow community members. 

Armed with knowledge due to having worked in the packaging and recycling industry for some time, he began to see the trends towards sustainability associated with waste collection and wasted no time in starting his business.

To keep his enterprise going, he travelled home to open shop on Saturdays. But as the business began to grow, so did the impact it had on people’s lives. 

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“With the impact that it had while I was still working, I knew I had to take this seriously.” 

Mawasha sold his car and went into debt to get Circular Green off the ground, but since then it has an impressive record of collecting around 61 tons of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles every year. Circular Green has been able to distribute R122,000 in PET buy-back capital to the Zebediela community and today, Mawasha employs 11 community members. 

His dream is to become the largest and most reliable recycling buy-back centre in Limpopo and aims to one day produce an end-product. 

“I love the work that I do. It’s amazing to sleep at night knowing that you’ve changed someone’s life.

“I now get to spend more time with my family, and I get to employ permanent staff. One of our guys invited me to his wedding. Others who upgrade their homes invite me to see their progress.”

Mawasha’s advice to future waste entrepreneurs is never to give up or lose hope. 

‘Losing dignity to gain dignity’

Fellow PET-repreneur winner Mandlenkosi Nkosi, who hails from Boksburg, started Man Recycling out of sheer will to provide for his family. 

Mandlenkosi Nkosi, founder of Man Recycling.

Nkosi lost his job in 2017, and had just started a family. He said that despite going from door to door looking for employment, he still found himself without work. 

But he recounted seeing an influx of people with trolleys collecting waste and decided to try it for himself. 

When he started he was earning R20 a day, but as time passed his fortunes began to change and eventually he collected enough to make an honest living. 

“At first I was shy, I would run away from the local community and collect as far away from where I was staying as I could. It was seen as an embarrassment, opening a bin to dig through it. It’s like you are redundant, but it worked for me.” 

And so, his wife joined him on his collecting rounds.

A man who noticed Nkosi sold him an old bakkie to make transporting waste easier and from then on his family began to make more money. 

Nkosi was recognised by the local municipality which offered him more transfer stations. This meant he could begin employing people. 

Petco then stepped in and provided him with a scale and a trailer, so he began buying recycled materials from other collectors. 

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He then found an abandoned building in Boksburg East that was inhabited by drug addicts and thieves.

He managed to convince the building’s owners to allow him to set up his buy-back centre and, after hiring some security to protect the building from being stripped further, he was able to settle and focus on growing his business. 

“I want to make people aware that recycling isn’t just for collectors. Everyone plays a role. What we do is a calling. People say we lose our dignity, but I gained pride to start a business. Once you get used to it, you feel like you’re fulfilling what you’re meant to do.”

A waste reclaimer roams suburban streets in search of recyclable materials.

For Nkosi, recycling goes hand in hand with environmental sustainability and awareness. 

“If you love something, you own it. If you love the environment, you will sacrifice your dignity to recycle, no matter how it looks.

“Begging on the streets would have lost me my dignity. But picking up paper is getting your dignity back.”

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He said there was enormous opportunity in the waste sector and circular economic thinking. Since every human produces waste, collectors and entrepreneurs should see this as a job opportunity, especially those who are independent. 

Man Recycling grew from Nkosi and his wife collecting waste to employing 30 community members. It collects more than 18 tons of PET every month. 

Nkosi has also started a WhatsApp group to give advice for those keen on starting a recycling business of their own. 

Circular economy opportunities

In 2019, South Africa’s waste management industry was worth an estimated R25 billion. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), around 1,043,000 tons of waste is collected each year. 

On average, the consumption of plastic has grown around 4% each year since 2000 and is projected to skyrocket by 40% by 2030.

In 2016, it was found that in the past 65 years, 8.3 billion tons of plastic was produced around the world – half of which was produced in the 2000s alone.

In 2018, 668,000 tons of virgin plastic was used in local manufacturing.

On average, the consumption of plastic has grown around 4% each year since 2000 and is projected to skyrocket by 40% by 2030.

South Africa’s comparatively low statistics in terms of plastic production and consumption makes it an ideal location to begin creating a circular economy to eliminate waste and to use resources as continuously as possible. 

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