An innovative project for informal waste pickers in Cape Town demonstrates how empowerment and a circular economy can make a difference
The solution is not to expand or build more landfills but rather to focus on recycling, say waste management experts
Initiatives by the Gauteng Department of Social Development, Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment
The goal is for every package to have more than one life
The image of plastic recycling as the solution to plastic pollution is perpetuated by statistics that highlight successes, which are communicated in tonnes and percentages that are difficult to visualise.
‘If plastic were a country, it would already be the fifth-largest emitter in the world’
Come rain or sun, waste pickers push their trolleys full of recycled material. But despite providing an environmental service they are not treated as the public-service workers they are
The durable bricks are made from 30% recycled plastic, some of which they collect from a network of 50 waste pickers
Travels in Afrofuturism, Themba Mkhize and an exhibition focusing on Johannesburg’s informal recyclers take centre stage in our weekly events guide