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The recycling industry has become a significant employer and its potential to deliver economic and social benefits continues to be powerfully demonstrated by Mpact Recycling, South Africa's leading paper recycler.
Mpact Recycling, part of the JSE-listed Mpact paper and plastic packaging group, embraces a social entrepreneurship empowerment model by partnering with local entrepreneurs who help to collect recycled paper. Aside from its own operations in major centres around South Africa, Mpact Recycling has 42 buy-back centres, where traders deliver waste paper for payment, and buys additional material from more than 90 independent dealers throughout the country. Over 40 entrepreneurial companies have also been empowered to facilitate its collection strategies, primarily involving independent collectors who collect recovered paper.
Mpact Recycling collects approximately 450 000 tonnes per annum of recovered paper and supplies this recovered fibre to the Group’s three paper mills for processing into recycled-based cartonboard and containerboard for sale to South Africa’s packaging industry, which prevents waste paper from being disposed of in landfill sites. Recycled papers are also marketed for other industrial applications.
According to the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (PRASA), recycling work presently provides jobs for around 100,000 people in South Africa, many of whom are entrepreneurs and small business owners who rely on finding and selling sustained volumes of recycled material to earn a living.
“Sustainability is key to our business and this includes contributing to the economy of the country through job creation,” says John Hunt, managing director of Mpact Recycling. “A culture of recycling is emerging within our country which is having a really positive effect on poverty alleviation, enterprise development and economic growth. At the same time, there is the significant environmental benefit of reusing a valuable resource and preventing the landfilling or incineration of used paper.
“However, in an industry that is traditionally difficult to break into, our main differentiator is that fact that we provide a guaranteed market for all grades of waste paper.”
To ensure that local recycling entrepreneurs are equipped to succeed and grow, Mpact Recycling is able to provide and install equipment such as paperbalers at its buy-back centres. These machines compress waste paper into cubes or bales, which helps the buy-back centre owners to increase the volumes they are able to process and to reduce the time it takes to do so. The technology also allows the centres to process and store more waste paper, effectively increasing the volume of their sales to Mpact Recycling.
Robertville Recycling, a buy-back centre in Roodepoort, is a true success story. The centre was established by Queen Phashe-Boikanyo some 12 years ago, with the help of Mpact, which assisted with finding a location and providing training. Today she has five full time employees and is supplied with recyclable material by local collectors who scour the surrounding industrial areas for waste paper, cardboard and plastic.
Today Phashe-Boikanyo processes about 100 tons of waste paper and cardboard a month, selling it onto Mpact Recycling. Her successful recycling business has enabled her to put all four of her children through school and the oldest two through university. Her eldest daughter is now a pharmacist and the next daughter will soon graduate as a dentist.
Phashe-Boikanyo is optimistic about the future: “This is a good business with the potential to get bigger, because a lot of the paper that is used in people’s homes and offices is still not recycled. I encourage people to start recycling, because it creates jobs and keeps our environment clean. All you have to do is start separating the paper from the other things you throw away and, once you have enough, bring it to an Mpact buy-back centre
About Mpact Recycling
Mpact Recycling is part of the Mpact group, which demerged from the Mondi Group and listed separately on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in July 2012. Mpact Recycling has since continued Mondi Recycling's former paper pickup initiative, inheriting and bettering on its reputation as the country's leading paper recycler. Recycling is integral to Mpact's business model because the raw materials for the packaging paper business originate from the nation's recycled paper. This has not only proved to be good business, but is also creating thousands of jobs in the informal sector. Small business entrepreneurs are encouraged to start paper and board collection businesses, while receiving advice, training, and equipment from Mpact. This is aimed at creating more employment for people in local communities.
Issued by: Shannon Roscher
PR Worx
011 896 1818
On behalf of: Donna-Mari Noble
Mpact Recycling
011 538 8603
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