Waste Is a Resource: The Businesses Turning South Africa’s Green Challenges into Economic Opportunity
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Waste Is a Resource: The Businesses Turning South Africa’s Green Challenges into Economic Opportunity
World Cleanup Day invites us to think about the waste that surrounds us; what we throw away, what ends up in landfills, and what it takes to keep our communities clean. But there is another question worth asking:
What if we stopped seeing waste only as something that needs to be removed, and started seeing it as a resource that can create economic value?
Across South Africa, businesses are already demonstrating what this can look like. Through the Women in Green, Construction, Waste Management and Renewable Energy Programme, part of Project EMBRACE, SASDC has highlighted businesses developing practical solutions across the green economy, from recycling and waste-to-energy to sustainable construction materials and environmental restoration. Their stories show that the green economy is not only about environmental outcomes. It is also about business opportunity, innovation, value chains and participation.
Turning waste into energy
For Justiceflames Pty (Ltd), waste can become an input for energy solutions. The business produces eco-friendly charcoal briquettes from biomass waste and coal briquettes from coal dust and biomass. It is also piloting the use of fly ash in paving bricks and blocks.
The approach demonstrates how materials that might otherwise become waste can be redirected into products with economic value, while supporting cleaner energy solutions and potential job creation.
Turning waste into infrastructure
At GrooveTech, waste is being incorporated into the built environment. The business transforms plastic, coal ash and mining by-products into materials such as asphalt, concrete and polymer-modified bitumen.
Rather than viewing these materials only as waste destined for landfill, GrooveTech demonstrates how they can become inputs into new products and applications. This is the circular economy in practice: finding ways to keep materials in use while creating opportunities for local businesses.
Restoring the environment while creating value
For Diboletswe General Trading (Pty) Ltd, environmental restoration and enterprise development intersect.
The business works in land rehabilitation and environmental restoration, while repurposing invasive tree material into firewood and charcoal through carbonisation.
This illustrates another dimension of the green economy: environmental challenges can create opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop businesses around restoration, resource recovery and sustainable use of materials.
Making waste visible
Technology can also play a role in changing how organisations understand and manage waste.
GENO AFRICA, through its REMASOL platform, developed an autonomous waste and recycling solution designed to help organisations unlock the potential of their waste.
The concept goes beyond simply disposing of waste. It encourages organisations to consider what value may be contained within the materials they discard and how better waste management can connect to broader sustainability and economic opportunities.
Building with what we throw away
Ronkela Trading Enterprise provides another example of waste being redirected into productive use. The business manufactures bricks, precast walls and furniture by transforming waste ash into sustainable building materials.
Here, waste becomes an input into construction and manufacturing, creating a connection between environmental management, product development and enterprise growth.
The bigger opportunity is in the value chain
These businesses may operate in different parts of the green economy, but their stories point towards a common opportunity. Waste management is not only an environmental issue. It is also an economic value-chain issue.
Collection, sorting, processing, recycling, manufacturing, logistics, energy production and sustainable construction can all create opportunities for businesses to participate in the transition towards a more circular economy. But businesses cannot access these opportunities through innovation alone. They also need markets. This is where procurement becomes important. When corporates make purchasing decisions, they are not simply choosing a supplier. For Black-owned and women-owned businesses operating in emerging green industries, access to these markets can be an important part of building sustainable enterprises.
From cleaning up to building up
World Cleanup Day can therefore be more than a reminder to dispose of waste responsibly. It can also prompt a bigger conversation about what happens after waste is collected.
Who processes it?
Who turns it into a new product?
Who creates jobs around it?
Who supplies the technology, services and infrastructure?
And, importantly, who gets the opportunity to participate in the value chains being created?
South Africa's green transition will require environmental action, but it will also require businesses that can turn environmental challenges into practical solutions.
It will require innovation and it will require markets.
The question is no longer only how we clean up waste. It is how we create economic opportunity from what we once considered waste.
That is where the South African Supplier Diversity and green procurement can play a role: connecting environmental objectives with inclusive economic participation and creating pathways for more businesses to contribute to South Africa's green economy.
Published: 19 September, 2026