Many young people in some parts of the African continent turn to waste management as an ad hoc or extra job to make small money when they are struggling with unemployment, a South Africa entrepreneur has identified a silver lining in a rather stormy sky.

Meet Tshepo Mazibuko, a young entrepreneur from Johannesburg whose waste recycling business is today an employer of 17 and engages a further 800 waste collectors: most of them women from poor communities. K1 Recycling partners with the community to create a zero-waste environment through integrated waste management. Mazibuko is the managing director.

Tshepo learned his business craft in the street. After four years of unemployment after school, he became a waste collector. He had to support himself and his family starting at a paltry 200 to 300 Rands (13 to 19 US$). This was not enough, but he instinctively knew that there was a lot of potential in what he was doing.

Mazibuko joined trolley pullers; a group of street waste collectors, quickly realizing that more opportunities abound.

Tshepo Mazibuko sorts waste with one of his employees (Photo: SWITCH Africa Green)

Mazibuko quickly saw the potential in waste and decided to start his business by building a small company to recycle plastic.

At the beginning, he proposed to his colleagues who were collecting waste that he could offer them transport. When they agreed to support him, he invested in a truck; his first step into real business.

Mazibuko then went and procured a small area that his family owned for producing bricks.  He and his wife took a loan to buy the plot. There was nothing on it, but they bought a few machines and started recycling plastic waste, plunging them into business.

K1 Recycling was established in 2009 and was formally registered as a business in 2011 with a mission of driving a zero-waste environment through integrated waste management solutions. Currently, the focus is plastic recycling to produce high density polyethylene and polypropylene plastic pellets. Today, KI Recycling processes 120 tonnes of plastics per month and has more than 1000 suppliers who are mainly community members. The company received support from SWITCH Africa Green through the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) as well as the Government of South Africa.

Read full article on: https://www.unep.org/switchafricagreen/news-and-stories/beneficiaries-story/recycling-waste-k1-recycling-way