Charles’ story
Charles is a 35 year old man who grew up in Soweto. He attended a local high school, passing matric except for his first language (isiZulu). He did not have any opportunity to study further because his family lacked the finances to support him.
Charles did a range of piece jobs after leaving school. These include in the construction sector and even as an extra on a film set. Eventually, Charles got a job as an assistant store manager at a company in the industrial sector. At some point, Charles was exposed to carbon dioxide from one of the tanks used by the company, and this made him ill. At this point, his doctor advised him to leave the job. As Charles explains: “I was thinking it was a good thing to do – to become self-employed. At the old place they did not treat me well. I became sick. I even got a claim number from the CCMA. So, it is better to be self-employed. They did not fire me, but I left because the doctor told me the job was not good for my health.”
Charles lived in his grandmother’s house in Soweto. In 2019 he met a young man called Smangaliso who was planning to initiate a waste recycling business in the neighbourhood. Charles and Smanga decided to become partners, and launched Umphakhathi Recyclers, which operates on grounds reclaimed from an illegal dumpsite. Today, Charles is one of the operators of the buy-back centre in a vibrant business which employs five people. Local waste reclaimers bring their materials to the centre daily for cash, and Charles and his colleagues sort this waste and transport it to Roodepoort, where they sell it to a formal buy-back centre.
The main source of recyclable material, however, comes from the more than 700 local households which have been persuaded to recycle and whose recyclables are collected weekly by Charles and his colleagues. Local residents are incentivised to provide Umphakhathi with their paper, cardboard, tins and plastic through an innovative funeral scheme which saves beneficiaries many thousands of rand if they suffer a bereavement, all for only the provision of their trash once a week.
Charles’ story shows that not only are there livelihoods to be made through recycling, but that social innovations can also stimulate a culture of recycling, and divert significant amounts of trash from the landfills.
Smanga’s story
Smanga grew up in Jabavu, an old neighbourhood of Soweto. Now 30 years old he previously dropped out of his second year of university due to financial challenges. Smanga was not deterred. Realising he had to be innovative, he looked around at his environment and what opportunities existed for him right in his own neighbourhood. He noticed that there was a massive informal dumpsite on the grounds of a former primary school on his road. There were continually bad smells from rotting waste, along with flies and rats on this dump. Frequently there were fires, which caused severe respiratory problems for many residents. One woman who lived next to the dump had to use a respirator machine because of the toxic fumes. He also noticed the many informal waste reclaimers who made a living out of recycling.
Smanga started to research the issue and he connected with PETCO in his efforts to find out more. A woman from PETCO then trained him in recycling and set Smanga up to start his own recycling business. Smanga continued with his research and learnt that there was a gap in community knowledge because residents did not understand recycling. He also saw that it would be profitable to open a buy-back centre, supplied by local residents, if only he could get them to bring him their waste. His mantra became: “Waste only becomes trash when you throw it away.”
The next step for Smanga was getting the assistance of the City of Johannesburg in cleaning up the dumpsite. The City has a campaign where residents can adopt an illegal dumpsite. The City sends Pikitup to clear the area, and then residents reclaim the area for a better use, such as a garden. While other residents had given up due to the slow response, Smanga says he kept knocking on the City’s door until they sent Pikitup to clear the dump.
They eventually came and it took them four days to completely clean the rubbish. Smanga then established Umphakhathi Recyclers in 2021 with Charles.