Photo: Tatenda Chitadu | Mongabay
After bookkeeper Nyemudzai Jakiti found herself out of work in 2018, she began picking up and selling litter, and then began working for the recycling company as it expanded. In Zimbabwe, where community-based recycling organizations grew from 50 in 2019 to 200 in 2023 and plastic recycling companies from 49 in 2019 to 71 in 2023, the boom means much of the country's plastic waste is being collected and recycled. Stable Packaging, where Jakiti works, makes irrigation pipes, plastic wrap, bin liners, planter bags and bags for animal feed. Florence Chiwera, 60, founded the Masvingo Urban Recycling Club in 2008 with other housewives to support the local authority's efforts to clean the city, but it soon turned into a way to make money by making aluminum pots and interlocking bricks from the waste, and Chiwera now brings in $200-$350 per month, equal to an average civil service salary. Zimbabwe's waste management plan will increase recycling bins, encourage waste separation at source and phase out single-use plastic packaging.
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