Plastics SA is dedicated to fostering and nurturing partnerships to bolster the strength and resilience of our Industry, as well as fostering economic empowerment and job creation with a focus on improving waste management and recycling.

ISOW is a Plastics SA initiative launched in Mpumalanga in collaboration with Petco, Polyco, eWASA, Metpac, PRO Alliance, Dow Southern Africa, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH*, the Ehlanzeni District and Local Municipality of Bushbuck Ridge. It is community-focused, delivering “Africanized” innovative solutions for waste management, specifically tailored to the needs of the community.

The Project’s goal is to have non-organic waste (“dry waste”) collected, transported and aggregated at a newly established collection facility known as a Waste Beneficiation Centre, a central hub where registered informal waste pickers and collectors will collect non-organic waste as opposed to picking waste at landfills or kerbsides. The Project will also provide waste sorting training and those with entrepreneurial aspirations can receive training in the day-to-day operations of a recycling business, equipping them with the skills needed to potentially run their own Beneficiation Centre in future.

*The Employment Promotion for Women for the Green Transformation in Africa – WE4D Programme – is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and co-funded by the European Union (EU) through regional and bilateral Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs). The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is responsible for project implementation.