{"id":8558,"date":"2020-03-11T09:37:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T06:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=8558"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:54","slug":"a-future-in-recycling-from-street-waste-collector-to-entrepreneur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/03\/11\/a-future-in-recycling-from-street-waste-collector-to-entrepreneur\/","title":{"rendered":"A Future In Recycling: From Street Waste Collector To Entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By UN Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Young\npeople on parts of the African continent sometimes turn to waste management as\nan ad hoc or extra job to make small money when they are struggling with unemployment,\nbut often opportunities are scarce to learn how to grow in this sector and turn\nit into real business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s an example from South Africa where supporting an entrepreneur pays off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tshepo\nMazubuko, a young person from a Johannesburg suburb, started his business from\nscratch to build a recycling company that is today employing 17 people and\nengaging over 800 waste collectors, most of them women from poor communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\nlearned business in the street. After four years of unemployment, I decided to\njoin waste collectors,\u201d says Mazubuko. \u201cI had to support myself and my family.\nAt the beginning, I was making 200 to 300 rands (13 to 19 US$). It was not\nenough, but I knew that there was a lot of potential in what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting\nwas not easy for Mazubuko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\nwas proud and happy with my first bag from the waste, but it turned out that it\nwas full of rubbish without value,\u201d Mazubuko confesses with a large smile on\nhis face. \u201cI had to learn how to differentiate between rubbish and waste to\nmake money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After\njoining trolley pullers\u2014street waste collectors\u2014he quickly realized that more\nopportunities abound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mazubuko\nquickly saw the potential in waste and decided to start his business by\nbuilding a small company to recycle plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt\nthe beginning, I proposed to my colleagues who were collecting waste that I\ncould help them with transport. They supported me and that was when I decided\nto buy a truck,\u201d says Mazubuko proudly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\nwas Mazubuko\u2019s first step into real business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mazubuko\nthen went and procured a small area that his stepfather used to own for\nproducing bricks.&nbsp; He proposed the idea\nto his wife who supported him. Together, they took a loan to buy the plot.\nThere was nothing on it. They bought few machines and started recycling plastic\nwaste and created their company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unenvironment.org\/news-and-stories\/story\/future-recycling-street-waste-collector-entrepreneur\">Read more&#8230; <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}