BY FARAI MAPOSA
Many women in some parts of the country are smiling all the way to the bank owing to them collecting plastic waste which they sell to plastic recycling company.
A plastic recycling entrepreneur Mary Wazara spoke to this paper saying they have empowered most women through plastic waste collection.
“We are empowering most women through buying from them waste plastics that we are recycling in our business,” said Wazara, who is the managing director for Plastix Incorporated.
She said at a cost of 25 cents per kg, many women are making a living out of these plastics.
“Many of our waste collectors are eking a living through selling waste plastic to us and now they can afford to pay their rentals and cover other day-to-day necessities such as food and sending their children to schools.
“We work with waste collectors and most of them are women from Mukuvisi, Victoria Falls, Plumtree, and Tafara and recently I have heard feedback from people in Beitbridge where we conducted training on waste collection and separation who have expressed interest,” she said.
The women are said to have created Community Based Organisation where they collectively take the plastic waste and then when they sell it they share the money.
Wazara said their business had seen reduction in importation costs, falling by 40%-50% since it started working with CBOs.
A woman from Beitbridge Nokuthula Zawe who spoke to this paper expressed gratification on how her life has immensely changed because of collecting plastic waste.
“I can safely say I never thought my life will change for better after i lost my husband who was the sole breadwinner,”she said.
She is now a proud owner of a three bed –roomed house while her first born is attending a local boarding school