Taking care of the environment that we live in is something that we should practise on a daily basis. This includes avoiding littering and throwing paper or plastic irresponsibly in the spaces we live in.
To combat this issue, and in commemoration of Environmental Health Awareness Month, All-U-Can – a company based in Warner Beach in Amanzimtoti, has committed to playing a part in keeping the environment clean while giving back to those participating.
One of the founders of All-U-Can, Olivia Delport, said that they are committed to helping local communities reduce waste being sent to landfills and strive to support communities by making recycling not only easier, but profitable as well.
“When my family and I moved to Amanzimtoti in June 2021 for a quiet life, just before the riots, one of the things we noticed once moving here was the lack of recycling facilities. However, as it was now a habit, we still carried on separating our trash for the local waste pickers to collect before the municipal garbage trucks would arrive on Fridays so that they wouldn’t have to dig through our other waste destined for the landfills. But we started wondering where the waste pickers were taking it all to.
After befriending a few of them and asking questions, we discovered they had to go to Isipingo. We also learned about their lives and the hardships they were facing. We started wondering, why not start a recycling business right here in Amanzimtoti? And the more we thought about it, and spoke about it, and dreamed how big it could become, the more excited we got,” she said.
Delport said the idea could promote sustainability, clean the environment, reduce what is being sent to landfills and create a maintainable income, not only for those in need but for the community as a whole by paying people to recycle.
Delport said that they opened the company with local people who they met in the area.
“In mid-December 2021, we opened All-U-Can with our friend, Sandile Shezi. JP Du Toit (who we met during the riots – he was one of the main co-ordinators of the barricades and patrols that were set up) joined us towards the beginning of January 2022 as he also believed in our vision and wanted to be a part of our initiative,” added Delport.
She said that their main aim was to practise safe recycling while making sure that people from local communities benefit. “We are focused on safely collecting and recycling aluminium cans with the view to minimising their environmental impact while also providing opportunities for the local community in the form of a buy-back programme. We have only been open for a little over a month, but the response so far has been hopeful and grateful. One of the guys who came yesterday was saying how he could sit on the side of the road and hope for a job, or he could walk around actively looking for one. He chooses the latter and collects cans on his way. In the late afternoons, he comes to our shop on 145 Kingsway Road, Warner Beach, and with the money he makes collecting cans, he buys food for himself and his family, which gives him the strength to carry on,” she added.
Delport further explained that they believe in growing the local economy while keeping the environment safe and clean at the same time.
“This is what we mean by a bottom-up economy. With the money from All-U-Can, he will now go to the vendor to feed his family. The vendor makes their money from him, and will buy something else from another local Amanzimtoti business, that business gets enriched and their workers get raises and bonuses, and that is also spent locally. And slowly our community prospers and our economy is revived. All this while saving the environment,” she added.
She concluded: “While aluminium cans are our initial involvement in our quest to help our community contribute to our quota in saving the environment, in the future we aim to move into the recycling of other materials like plastic, glass and paper. But in order to do that, we need to grow because the more we grow, the more we can achieve. Together, we can help each other. And the only way we can do that, is with the support of our community. Saving the environment and helping the people who live in it has never been more necessary, and everyone can do it. We all can do it, with All-U-Can.”
