greenABLE

Creating opportunities for unemployed, disabled persons by recycling printer cartridges
2014 SEED South Africa Award; Government of Flanders
Waste Management
Pinetown, Kwa-Zulu Natal
South Africa

greenABLE NPC recycles empty printer cartridges and sells the derived plastic and metals, generating a steady flow of income. The enterprise supports entrepreneurial persons with mobility-restricting disabilities to become greenAGENTs. greenAGENTS run their own homebased cartridge collection business and sell the collected cartridges to greenABLE for recycling.

In its recycling facility, greenABLE provides workplace training for disabled persons who dismantle the cartridges. greenABLE offers its trainees scholarships, enabling them to attend school leaving certificate courses and access the job market.

greenABLE offers workplace training and skill development for 28 disabled persons who are unemployed, primarily single mothers, enabling them to access the job market.

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
greenABLE offers workplace training and skill development for 28 disabled persons who are unemployed, primarily single mothers, enabling them to access the job market.
  • Offering workplace training and skill development for 28 disabled persons, primarily single mothers, who were once unemployed. These programmes increase their self-esteem and enable them to support their 105 dependents.
  • Providing recycled plastic to government’s low-cost housing initiative.
  • Recycling 305,690 printer cartridges per year. This equals to approximately 220 t of waste diverted from landfills.
  • Reducing carbon emissions by 263 t each year.
  • Applying a labour-intensive, not energy-intensive recycling process and aspiring for zero waste production.
  • Creation of employment opportunities for 15 greenAGENTS.
  • Lifting 28 beneficiaries out of unemployment by offering them education and work-experience programmes.
  • Income generated from recycling covers the operational costs of running the enterprise.

Partners

greenABLE has found an innovative solution for recycling empty printer cartridges. The recycled plastic and metals are sold, generating a steady flow of income and employment opportunities for previously unemployed persons with disabilities. Jobs are being created in the enterprise’s recycling facility or as greenAGENTS who run their own home-based cartridge collection business and sell the collected cartridges back to the enterprise.

greenABLE has set up the recycling facility with the double aim of reducing waste and environmental pollution and of offering disabled persons a livelihood by remanufacturing empty toner cartridges.

greenOFFICE provides greenABLE with administrative, logistic and other support services, including logistic support for greenAGENTS.

USE-IT offers project support, environmental advice, and guidance to greenABLE.

Island View Storage supports six of the beneficiaries by covering the cost of their education and stipends.