This environmentalist is shaping people’s minds when it comes to recycling

Journalist turned environmentalist Simangele Chirwa is creating job opportunities for the unemployed people of Umhlathuze, a semi-rural area in KwaZulu-Natal.

Through her organisation, Re-living cop17, she buys recyclable materials from waste pickers and informal recyclers. The organisation then sells the materials to companies that reuse them.

Chirwa told the Mercury back in 2019 when she was interviewed for winning the Lady Lion R100k competition that the reason she started the company was to minimize waste that went to landfill sites and to keep the surroundings clean.

“But most importantly [the business was started] to combat hunger and poverty by creating employment,” she said.

Chirwa had attended and covered a Cop17 conference in 2012 when she heard climate change being discussed and how polluting the land could harm the earth.

Activists, leaders, and environmentalists meet yearly to discuss different strategies which can be used to fight climate change.

“Among the different ideas that were discussed one that stroke my attention was recycling, this is because I knew that it was still a foreign concept in my community and I felt that it was doable,” Chirwa explained.

Almost a year later, equipped with that valuable information, Chirwa, then went back to her community and gathered five community members who would make up the core team and that is how the organisation was born.

She said the organisation through various initiatives and projects, also has been educating community members about sustainability (recycling in particular) as to why and how it should be done.

“Back in 2014, we partnered with a Johannesburg company called the Paper Recycling Association South Africa (PRASA) in conducting workshops which trained 60 community members on how to correctly practice safe recycling. The workshops are held three to four days weekly and they have been welcomed by the community,” Chirwa said.

Chirwa said once the training is completed, those who have attended are given certificates.

She explained that the certificates could be used by those looking for jobs in municipalities while others use them to start their recycling businesses.

Through the organisation, Chirwa said she was able to change people’s minds when it comes to recycling and the perceptions that people had – which were not positive.

“We have also been able to erase the stigma that was attached to waste recycling that it was only for hobos. We started by conducting it in a dignified manner, this was because when we started people would not want to participate in recycling because of the wrong ideas that they had like “why would I recycle because I don’t need trash money” to “recycling is not a choice but a responsibility to all of us”,” she explained.

Editor’s note:

Simangele Chirwa of Umhlathuze in KZN is teaching her community about the importance of looking after the earth so that mother earth can look after her children. What Chirwa and her team are doing is great as it helps to reduce waste in certain parts of her community.

Description:

In her organisation, she can lead sustainable projects that impact the earth in terms of land pollution and creates job and business opportunities for several people in her community.

Editor: Anirlé de Meyer

Project manager: Anirlé de Meyer