Two trolleys and the hope for a better life. This was all Ezekiel Ramashia had as a young man struggling with unemployment in Tembisa when he first joined a group of waste pickers. There, he learned the ropes of the recycling industry, and today, he is uplifting others and building a legacy.
Johannesburg, South Africa (17 June 2025) – In a touching story of how one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, Ezekiel Ramashia, a father of four from Tembisa in the south of Johannesburg, was able to turn his once hopeless circumstances into adequately providing for his family by pursuing opportunities in recycling.
His waste-to-wonder journey began when he started collecting waste on the streets at the age of 21.
“Like many young people in South Africa, I was unemployed and needed to generate an income,” he shares.
“Each morning I would see my neighbours pushing trolleys, so one day I decided to tag along with them to see what it was all about.”
It wasn’t long before he, too, joined the movement, armed with two trolleys and the hope of creating a better life for himself and his family.
According to the South African Waste Pickers Association, there are around 4,000 to 6,000 members across all nine provinces that contribute to recovering a significant amount of paper and packaging waste and diverting it from ending up in municipal landfills. These individuals have found a way to organically support and assist each other, which made starting out in the industry a little easier for Ezekiel.
Through guidance from other waste pickers, the areas he identified as his collection points were Rosebank, Sandton, Kempton Park and Midrand. Ezekiel would then sell the recyclables he collected for between R200 and R300 a day to Mpact Recycling in Wynberg. Recognising his potential and hard work, the then-branch manager, Scott Ferguson, offered him a position as a general worker.
“Working in this facility was challenging at first, but it was an opportunity for me to learn the basics of the business of recycling,” Ezekiel says.
“That is when I developed the idea of starting my own business.”
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Over the next decade, Ezekiel advanced to night shift supervisor. After some time, he ventured into operating his own independent buy-back centre in Tembisa.
“I found a suitable site for sorting near my home,” he explains.
“I was then equipped with a scale and other basic equipment that allowed me to start my own buy-back centre.”
Today, with over 20 years in the recycling industry, Ezekiel continues to provide for his family and empower his immediate community, not just by providing job opportunities, but also educating them on the benefits of recycling.
“My eldest son is now practising as a professional nurse, and I feel very proud that I was able to afford his tertiary education fees,” he says.
“The income that I generated from my career in recycling enabled me to sustain my family, which motivated me to do more.”
“I remember raising R30,000 for my daughter’s first year, and slowly building my home. People in my area started to notice how recycling was positively impacting my life, and they began to take my work seriously,” he says.
Ezekiel’s commitment extends beyond business. He actively educates unemployed youth on how to start their own recycling career. He aims to enhance recycling practices and raise community awareness on how to dispose of waste correctly, so that waste collectors collect non-contaminated, high-quality recyclables.
Not only is Ezekiel’s story a testament to the potential within South Africa’s recycling industry, but it also holds a reminder that with determination and a keen eye for opportunity, one person’s initiative can truly transform lives and communities.
“Waste pickers play a very important role in South Africa’s recycling efforts,” states Ezekiel.
“That’s where I started, and now I encourage my community to do the same so that we can all live in a cleaner area and put food on the table for our families.”
Sources: Supplied
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