From ‘Dirt’ to Empowerment: Sinqobile Ndlovu’s Sustainable Path with Plastic Recycling
Sinqobile Ndlovu and her team
Global warming and climate change have become a big concern for the whole world. With temperatures hitting their highest and lowest levels in recent years, people’s and animals’ lives are being exposed to dangers brought by these changes. In order to prevent problems caused by global warming, many nations, organizations, and individuals have put measures in place to seek solutions to the growing problem.
Zimbabweans have joined in the campaign to save lives and the earth by introducing many projects. Among these groups of people who are fighting for a better future is Sinqobile Ndlovu, who has come up with a very interesting project aimed at helping with one of the world’s biggest problems: plastic, which is a contributor to global warming and climate change.
Through Wezesha Industries, Sinqobile, a Bulawayo-based woman, has been collecting plastics and recycling them to help in the fight against climate change as well as to support women, youths, and people living with disabilities.
“We have a network of about 80 people, among them women, youth, and people living with disabilities. These people work hard to collect litter and sell it to recycling companies, and some sell it within the organization where we have projects to recycle the plastics into different products,” she says.
Sinqobile and her team have been going around training youth and women on ways to make money through recycling plastics. Recently, they have been doing trainings on how to make opaque beer ‘chibuku super’ empty containers into sweeping brooms, and this initiative was to add value to their plastics collections.
“Our main aim in recycling PET bottles into sweeping brooms is to add value. For example, the PET bottle in its raw form can be sold at 7 cents a kilogram; after processing, we can sell it at 25 cents per 30 units,” said Sinqobile.
A broom crafted from recycled plastic bottles by Sinqobile Ndlovu’s team, turning waste into opportunity
Hindrances and challenges cannot be overlooked in any plan. For Sinqobile, her biggest challenge is societal stereotypes towards people who walk around collecting litter. She said that many young people are hesitant to join their programs because they are ashamed of being seen loitering streets picking litter.
However, she has not stopped with her campaign to not just help women and youth make money but also invite them into the fight against global warming.
Another challenge is that women in recycling are placed at lower ranks than men, and at times they are not taken seriously, even though they are the biggest contributors of waste to recycle.
Financially, the Wezesha project has been receiving donations and grants to keep running since it was launched.
Sinqobile continues her journey to empower, educate, and urge communities to adopt the reuse, recycle, and restore initiative, especially in these financially straining times.
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