“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.” – Nelson Mandela
Trolley-preneurs are perhaps the best recyclers in South Africa and the cleanliness in our communities is as dependent on them as the municipal service which collects our waste every week. As we observe Nelson Mandela International Day, John Hunt, managing director of Mpact Recycling, urges South Africans to make every day a Mandela Day by working collectively with trolley-preneurs to save our country’s landfills from reaching full capacity.
We pass them every day outside our homes and office parks, most of the time without a greeting or a second glance. They go through our bins and are often seen dragging trolleys piled high with waste paper. But did you know that trolley-preneurs, also known as waste traders, are an important aggregator of waste for the recycling industry and form part of Mpact’s value chain as they deliver paper to places like the buy-back centres on a regular basis.
Start by making a conscious effort to have separate containers for glass and plastics in your kitchen or garage and put all your sorted paper into the local green Ronnie bag for the weekly kerbside collection. If kerbside collections do not happen in your area, make sure to drop off your paper and cardboard at your nearest Ronnie Bank located conveniently countrywide.
Ronnie Banks are located at schools, churches, old-age homes and community centres, and are used as a fundraising tool for the community. So be sure to support them by dropping off your paper on a weekly basis.
The late statesman and global icon, Nelson Mandela, once said: “It is in your hands now.” Start this Mandela Day and became an agent of change by spending 67 seconds each day throwing all your paper and cardboard products in a Ronnie bag, because for every one ton paper recycled, three cubic metres of landfill are saved and approximately 12 jobs created.
