According to the company, young people within South Africa have a rich history of tackling issues such as waste generation, youth unemployment and converting challenges and obstacles to thriving startup businesses.

"These thriving and sustainable businesses can provide employment opportunities for their peers, while addressing a need within their respective communities," says the company. 

The World Bank's What a Waste 2.0 report estimates that waste generation across Sub-Saharan Africa will more than double by 2050 and that this implies a substantial threat for most. 

According to Thoabala, this is what inspired the start of Nathi Glass. "We founded our company because we had always wanted to make a meaningful environmental and social impact within the recycling space. With the support of Nampak Glass (now Isanti Glass), we started trading back in May 2017," says Thoabala.

Thoabala, who was 38 years old when she and her partner started the business, says that she had wanted to turn the social entrepreneurship drive she had always felt into a tangible way to impact her community and make a positive difference to the environment.

"The business came about as a result of the concern we shared around the recyclable tons of waste, which still end up within surrounding landfills, as well as a concern for the plight of the waste reclaimers / collectors for whom the collection of recyclables is their only source of income," says Thoabala.

"Glass recycling was particularly interesting because it could be recycled again and again," Thoabala adds.

When they first started out, they worked on all aspects of the business, ranging from sourcing suppliers (informally contracted reclaimers / collectors), loading the trucks at landfills and growing the business for 18 months, before being in a position to employ permanent staff.

"We were fortunate that Isanti Glass supported us and assisted us by paying invoices in advance and, as a result, the business made profit after one year of operation. Some of our biggest learnings include the fact that obtaining access to funding is a huge hindrance to small businesses, whether it's working capital or asset finance," says Thoabala. 

"We've had to rely on family and friends, as well as other partners such as The Glass Recycling Company for non-financial forms of support. Another vital learning for us was that your monthly projections are a moving target as things outside your control, such as vehicle breakdowns or strikes; it causes you to adjust, review your strategy and find a new operational normality," says Thoabala.

The business employs no less than ten full-time employees, as well as approximately 1 200 secondary income earners that consist of reclaimers that supply the company.

The business owns three trucks and rents a big crane from third party service providers, procures recyclable waste, mostly from reclaimers at landfills, informal settlements, township and establishments.

"Starting the business has made it possible to uplift the communities around us and provided us with the ability to add value in ways I couldn't imagine. This includes seeing reclaimers that initially used to collect about a ton per month, grow to reclaiming on average 20 tons a month and helping to empower them to create employment within their respective communities," Thoabala concludes.

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