Evangelists of recycling

» We are not your average recycling company. We are evangelists of recycling.

THE ‘WE’ IN THIS UNUSUAL BRAND POSITION ARE NKAZIMLO MITI AND CHAD ROBERTSON, the UWC alumni who founded Regenize, an award-winning waste management company. The two became friends in their third year when their BCom studies focused more on Information Systems (IS), their area of specialisation. The IS department was hugely influential, not only in terms of them benefitting from the expertise and industry knowledge of lecturers like Roscoe Adams and Dr Njenga, but their observation of the department taught them a lot about organising enterprises efficiently.

“I think the IS department helped us to see how a tight ship operates,” says Nkazi, who has lectured part-time at the department.

Chad says it was also a nurturing environment: “They had a nice balance of how a team should operate. You would have someone who was very focused on the care of students, always checking up on how you were doing, making sure that you were okay. And then you would have tougher members more focused on how you were progressing work-wise. Diff erent people brought diff erent values but it all came together in a very special way. The values that I got from them were to be cognisant of all the diff erent aspects of people, how you work with those people and how that impacts them.

» The IS department was hugely influential, not only in terms of them benefitting from the expertise and industry knowledge of the lecturers, but their observation of the department taught them a lot about organising enterprises efficiently. «

Nkazimlo Miti and Chad Robertson.

“We felt like family there and we try and instil the same type of culture here as well.”

After graduating, they immediately undertook BCom honours at UWC in 2014. It was during that year that Chad conceived the idea of starting a business supplying 3D-printed objects custom-made from waste plastic. Nkazi seemed the natural choice for a partner. Chad, who is married to UWC BCom Honours alumna Somaya Hendricks, says: “Nkazi and I became business partners because we both had the hardest work ethic that we know. When we did group work in our different groups, Nkazi and I would be the guys sitting at UWC all night finishing the group assignments.”

After investing their own money in machinery and materials and months of experimenting and tinkering, they realised that the idea of developing 3D applications from waste plastic wasn’t viable. But there were opportunities in the waste recycling industry, given that South Africa has a low level of recycling non-commercial waste.

» Nkazi and I became business partners because we both had the hardest work ethic that we know. When we did group work in our different groups, Nkazi and I would be the guys sitting at UWC all night fi nishing the group assignments. «

Although Nkazi found some of the research he was doing towards his MCom in Information Management Studies useful (his research focus was on building maturity models for micro enterprises), they knew nothing about the industry. So, in 2016, they decided to literally get their hands dirty, collecting recyclable domestic waste themselves using borrowed bakkies and selling the sorted waste to recycling depots to learn how things worked.

Although an estimated 90 000 informal collectors each annually collect as much as 24 tons of domestic waste for recycling in South Africa, they do so inefficiently, sorting through refuse at the kerbside and transporting small loads in purloined shopping trolleys. These collectors expend a high level of muscle energy and time for very little return, receive no cooperation or assistance from homeowners and are often met with hostility or suspicion by residents and road users.

Furthermore, the primary loci of activity were recycling depots and the landfi ll sites, where municipal waste was separated and sorted by ‘pickers’. In other words, because the recycling industry was unable to effi ciently access the waste at source, it focused on accessing waste at the end of its journey.

Reasoning that people want to recycle and that it would be less costly to the society if waste entered the recycling process nearer to the source, they began applying systems thinking to domestic waste collection.

After participating in the MTN venture incubation programme, the entrepreneurs emerged with a business model that provides solutions to each problem identifi ed in the recycling value chain.

» Although an estimated 90 000 informal collectors each annually collect as much as 24 tons of domestic waste for recycling in South Africa, they do so ineffi ciently, sorting through refuse at the kerbside and transporting small loads in purloined shopping trolleys. «

First, they provide each participating collector with a highly visible, cycle-powered cart. The vehicle is safe, stable, energy effi cient and carries a bigger, more profi table load than the ubiquitous trolley.

Next, to incentivise homeowners to separate recyclables from the waste destined for the municipal bin and donate them directly to the collectors, the pair invented ‘Remali’, virtual currency that participating homeowners redeem for airtime and data as their reward for participation. Then they used their IT training to solve the communication problem by devising an app connecting the homeowner to collectors armed with Regenize mobile phones.

With Chad acting as CEO and Nkazi as the chief operations offi cer, Regenize has already won recognition and funding from the SAB Foundation among other accolades, enabling the piloting of the project in Cape Town. The entrepreneurs expect to grow Regenize into a national company following the expansion of operations in the Western Cape.