YOUR TRASH, OUR CASH!

A university dropout has transformed an illegal dumping ground into a viable recycling business for his community

- LESEGO MKHIZE

HE HAD his heart set on university and was thrilled when he was accepted to study public management at the University of Johannesburg.

But in his second year, in 2012, he was forced to drop out because of a lack of funds. Smanga Mthembu could've joined the ranks of millions of unemployed young South Africans, many of whom have given up looking for work.

Instead he looked around to see what he could do, not only for himself but for others and the environment - and today the 30-year-old entrepreneur is a business-owner who employs a team of six and is making a difference to the lives of many. Smanga is the owner of Umphakathi Recyclers in White City, Soweto, operating a burgeoning recycling operation in the once-rubbish-strewn grounds of an abandoned school.

A hand-painted message on a white wall at the premises says it all: "It's only trash when you throw it away".

Smanga has transformed the illegal dumping ground into a hive of activity a place where no one is turned away and everyone leaves with something in their pocket, no matter how small.

"This is where magic happens," he says. And he's not wrong. Umphakathi Recyclers was recently crowned the country's recycling champion by the Polyethylene Terephthalate Recycling Company, a non-profit that promotes recycling across SA and helps ensure recyclers have a place to sell what they collect at a fair price.

But recycling isn't the only way Smanga is changing lives: his business also runs a burial scheme covering more than 700 households in White City.

He realised he could help the community cover the costs of loved ones' funerals after a woman came to him with a load of paper, desperate for money to bury her son.