PET nominations Desks Polokwane Recycling
Photo Credit: On File

South African women are making a huge difference in their communities, creating jobs and cleaning the environment by running successful recycling programmes.

 

PETCO recently held their annual awards ceremony and awarded two phenomenal women with the top woman in recycling and the best PET-trepreneur. With August being women’s month and tomorrow being National Women’s Day, we thought we would celebrate two extraordinary women changing the recycling world.

Both women shared their stories and focused heavily on spreading a message that women can do what ever they put their minds to.

Meet the first phenomenal woman, Nokubonga Mnyango, the winner of the PETCO award PET-trepreneur. Nokubonga started her business within her township of Ngwelezane outside Empangeni. She collects waste from taverns, shops, and schools. In 2016 her company supplied 3690 tonnes of PET to Mpact.

Nokubonga has 2 permanent employees and in the busy season she hires more than 59 casuals. Her company also trains and provides waste bags to households, explaining how recycling can benefit the community.

“My passion started when I attended a workshop in Durban arranged by PETCO. I realised I could live my dream of operating my own business, bought a bakkie from my earnings and linked disadvantaged recyclers in the community to the markets.”

You can watch her inspiring story below.

Charlotte Lamprecht, voted the Top Woman in Recycling 2017, started her recycling programme in 2007 to make a difference for the environment. She decided she wanted to do so much more and approached the Municipality of Riversdale to implement new policy that would help make recycling easier.

“The total volume of material recycled during 2016 was 3 287 308kg and total PET during the same period was 57 392kg or just over 57 tonnes.” Charlotte’s programme has a buyback centre that supports approximately 400 entrepreneurs per month. They also have a total of 81 people that are employed, 48 of who are women.

You can watch Charlotte’s story below.


Sources: PETCO Supplied
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About the Author

Tyler Leigh Vivier is a writer for Good Things Guy.

Her passion is to spread good news across South Africa with a big focus on environmental issues, animal welfare and social upliftment. Outside of Good Things Guy, she is an avid reader and lover of tea.

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