Young people turning waste into worth

Young people have been at the forefront of developing  innovative and creative solutions to climate change while simultaneously growing the green economy.

Protea Glen based Got Paper, hosted a waste management dialogue at Soweto Theatre this afternoon.

The dialogue saw innovators within the green sector come together to share their stories of success, but most importantly, their stories of failure.

Keynote speaker and CEO of TOSACA Media and the Green Youth Network,  Sanele Zulu, shared his entrepreneurial journey in which he revealed that he had seven businesses fail before he found a green business model that worked.

“I was working at Shoe City and I remember we were throwing them away so I decided to take the boxes and sell them,” said Zulu as he recalled his journey into green entrepreneurship.

Zulu later expanded his business to include other shops in the mall he worked in, he says. He was disappointed when all his hard work culminated to R140 worth of boxes and plastic and glass bottles.

The dialogue also provided a space in which green entrepreneurs could network and learn from each other.
“Before I started my business, I attended a waste management forum which was in Sandton and I later realised that not everyone can get to Sandton and this is an industry anybody can get into.

“I decided to bring the conversation to the township where we always complain about unemployment and lack of opportunities,” explained Nombulelo Rammitloa, founder of Got Paper.

In attendance were other young green entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses in a short space of time such as Moipone Ntseke, founder of Star Born Bags which takes old billboards and turns them into bags.

Ntseke encouraged her fellow entrepreneurs to remain humble even once their businesses start taking off.

The waste management dialogue was the first of many according to Rammitloa who feels such gatherings are important for green entrepreneurs.