The City of Johannesburg’s Environment and Infrastructure Service Department (EISD) hosted the Youth Recycling Indaba 2026 on Thursday, 15 October 2026, bringing together young entrepreneurs, environmental groups, and government officials to boost youth participation in Joburg’s growing circular economy.
Organised in collaboration with Pikitup, the Greater Johannesburg Environmental Forum (GJEF), and plastics recycling body Petco, the event took place under the theme “Empowering Youth Through Recycling, Innovation and the Circular Economy”.
“The aim of the indaba is for young people to start to see opportunities available in the waste space,” said Smith Radingwana, Manager Environmental Education and Community Development at Pikitup.
“Currently, we have a number of cooperatives made up of young people throughout the city. As Pikitup, we have linked them with several organisations in the recycling space who have been helping them with skills development.”
Radingwana said the initiative is starting to yield tangible results, with an increasing volume of recyclable waste being diverted away from landfills.
Community leaders highlighted the necessity of structured support from local authorities to help youth-led ventures scale up.
“We are creating partnerships and networks with the government and other stakeholders to assist us as cooperatives to be part of the circular economy,” said Bernard Mulauzi of the Greater Johannesburg Environmental Forum.
“We want to create a network between us and the city so that we can tap into the environmental space by empowering communities to protect their surroundings.”
Among the entrepreneurs sharing success stories was Banele Ndlovu, a self-taught environmentalist from Pimville, Soweto, who built a thriving recycling enterprise from scratch.
“I started by washing bins in the township. The first month I washed 10 bins, and it grew from there. I would often see people taking waste from the bins before Pikitup collected the refuse, and that is how I learned recycling,” said Ndlovu.
His operation now employs 22 young people and has expanded across Soweto. Beyond collecting plastic bottles and recyclable waste, the business manufactures bags from recycled plastics, operates a community food garden, and has planted over 1 000 trees in the area.
City officials reaffirmed their commitment to supporting similar community-based organisations, enforcing waste management compliance, and fostering public-private partnerships to drive sustainable urban development.
Issued by the City of Johannesburg
