Umamah Bakharia | ub@radioislam.co.za

5min read
28 September 2022 | 13:00 pm CAT

This week marks National Recycling Week in South Africa, a country which generates around 107.7 million tonnes of waste annually. While only 10% of the waste produced is recycled, 90% is diverted to over-capacitated landfill sites or illegally dumped.

According to statistics, recycling is rapidly emerging as one of the global key drivers of business transformation. In South Africa, it has a huge potential to help the country find ways to build a more inclusive economy and create millions of jobs.

Speaking to Radio Islam, the Co-Founder of Boomba.mobi, Nondumiso Sibiya says even though people are aware of recycling, they are not active in the process.

“The more important thing is to be active in practising recycling [by] separating waste and giving people who live of from that waste in that way we ensure that there is limited non-recyable or recyclable waste that goes into the landfill,” says Sibiya.

Boomba.mobi is a company founded to answer illegal dumping in Diepsloot that aims to create consumer awareness of the importance of recycling.

Sibiya says collaboration is important in the industry for entrepreneurs to excel in recycling. “As entrepreneurs, we constantly have to look out for ways to use the waste that we get through servicing our customers and then to work with that waste to make it a resource,” she says.

Adding that a lack of recycling could have dire consequences on the planet.

Listen to the full interview here: