This project empowers unemployed locals and children from the Dunoon community by giving them the opportunity to buy essential food supplies, school uniforms, stationery and second-hand clothes in exchange for their recycling. In doing this they contribute to a cleaner global environment whilst taking responsibility for their local environment by reducing the waste lying in the street.

Reducing the waste lying around Dunoon

Over the last few years Dunoon has made the headlines every few months as the media reports on the sewage running down the streets and the ongoing struggle with waste collection. One of our Directors has even sat in meetings with the local government to brainstorm solutions. It became clear that to solve this problem sustainably would require multiple interventions one of which is to decrease the amount of waste lying on the streets. The Waste Not programme activates the community by giving incentives for locals to collect the recyclable waste lying around the community.

Give access to educational resources

The last census showed that the monthly income for 79% of Dunoon households is less than R3300 a month and 33% of households in Dunoon bring in less than R400 a month. The most basic school supplies will cost a parent between R750 and R1500. We have seen first hand how parents struggle to provide their children with basic school supplies and how disempowering this can be. The Waste Not programme empowers children and parents to collect recycling that they can exchange for essential food supplies, school uniforms, stationery and second-hand clothes.

Whilst food assistance is necessary up to a point, it can create an unsustainable dependency that can have long term negative effects. For this reason, we designed the Recycle Swop Shop as an alternative to traditional food relief. We also invested in supporting and setting up a food garden.