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Reimagining Waste: An exchange for Good(s)
Posted by Breggie Hoffman on 15 August 2022, 13:35 SAST
The EcoXchange programme is setting a new benchmark for the term "innovation". The team at the WOT-IF? Trust has come up with a methodology that supports aspiring entrepreneurs, protexts the dignity of participants and addresses the plastic polution problem in the Diepsloot area.
In a community like Diepsloot, the WOT-IF? team often find that the people they work with are struggling to meet their basic needs. Part of their mandate is to help aspiring entrepreneurs develop their businesses so that they can secure an income for themselves and eventually create jobs in their community. But how can people to build thriving businesses when they are hungry?
Before Covid the Trust was able to provide soup and sandwiches to programme participants on a daily basis. However, this only provided a temporary solution and is not empowering in any way.
To address the issue of supporting the basic needs of their enterprise development participants, they came up with the EcoXchange programme. This programme however had a much larger effect than initially anticipated.
How it works
The EcoXchange store enables people to buy what they need using a community currency, which they earn through “green” activities. They can bring in Ecobricks they’ve made or seedlings they’ve grown to earn this currency called EcoBucks. Young children can even exchange wet waste that will be used for composting in the WOT-IF? vegetable garden.
The societal effect
Participants “do something to get something”, rather than receiving handouts. This builds dignity through earning, while at the same time benefitting the community. Using this model a culture of social responsibility, self-reliance and eco-awareness is created.
The environmental effect
The EcoXchange is stocked with non-perishable food items, stationary and pre-loved househould items, clothing and toys. The WOT-IF? Trust receive these goods as donations, goods that would have ended up in a landfill now find new homes where they are valued because they have been earned and bought.
The EcoBricks that are exchanged are made by filling empty 2L water bottles with plastic litter. These bricks can then be used to build houses, walls and furniture. Diepsloot has a seriouse plastic waste problem. Turning this waste into an asset is therefore transformational in more ways than one.
(A note on this last image: There is an actual wall of EcoBricks on the WOT-IF? Trust's premises in Diepsloot, but I could not find that photo. The polution and bottle filling photos above are of Diepsloot and an event hosted by the WOT-IF? Trust, but the photo with the South African flag wall is from a post by GoodThingsGuy)
