South Africa’s Rising Plastic Recycling Rate Opens New Opportunities For Youth Employment

In 2024, South Africans recycled 471,000 tonnes of plastic, with 28.4% of that waste being processed into new plastic products.

This mechanical plastics recycling rate of 28,4%, which is above the global average, is promising and signals circular economy opportunities.

The country is witnessing a value-creation opportunity where we can position ourselves as leaders in recycling.

Mr Price Foundation believes that the country’s youth are at the forefront of reimagining waste from a burden to an opportunity.

At a time when 7.7 million young South Africans are not in employment, education, or training (NEET), we cannot afford to let waste remain both an environmental burden and a missed economic opportunity.

Closing this gap requires a shift in how young minds think about waste from a product of our consumption to a valuable input in our production.

While youth represent a tremendous opportunity, they cannot solve these challenges alone.

The private and public sectors need to partner to support the creation of economic pathways into green entrepreneurship.

Universities = innovation engines

Universities are not just training grounds; they are innovation engines waiting to be activated.

The higher education institutions are hubs of applied learning, development support, research and innovation.

Real economic resilience takes shape when young people are equipped to turn systemic problems into commercially viable solutions.

A structured, purpose-driven development approach that embeds design thinking and circular economy principles ensures that solutions are developed with economic development in mind.

From ideation to industrialisation, South African youth need to be empowered to turn waste into value.

Waste Innovation Challenge

The transition from an idea to a market-ready solution is often referred to as the "messy middle" of innovation.

Without a structured framework to foster innovation, brilliant ideas are often left unrealised.

It is for this reason that the Mr Price Foundation, in partnership with Universities South Africa’s (USAf’s) Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme, has launched the Waste Innovation Challenge.

This entrepreneurship development initiative provides a practical pathway into green entrepreneurship through a structured, expert-led development framework aimed at supporting youth to turn ideas into viable ventures.

The programme provides 400 participants with development, design thinking principles, circular economy principles and more to support the generation of viable, scalable solutions.

The top 20 ideas submitted will undergo intensive development to refine and test their ideas before pitching for seed funding.

A R245,000 prize pool and six-month development support will ensure that the top five entrants are equipped to take their solutions from ideas to early-stage ventures.

The initiative is open to students and recent graduates across all 26 universities in South Africa who aspire to use their knowledge to solve the country’s challenges.

All faculties are welcome.

Whether the opportunity is turning plastic waste into construction materials or jewellery, these next-gen prototypes offer a glimpse of a new industrial sector taking shape.

Through synergistic partnerships like the one we have with EDHE, I see an opportunity to help catalyse the landscape of entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Building a scalable youth entrepreneurship ecosystem requires alignment and collaboration across corporates and our public sector counterparts. The sum of our efforts guarantees a collective endurance that we cannot unlock without partnerships.

When we come together to provide the youth with the tools they need to create value, we build a future and an economy.

What is too often dismissed as waste should be recognised for what it is, raw material for a new economy.

South Africans need to think more ambitiously about the true potential of waste and start building it rather than burying it.