Talking trash -- recycling your waste for airtime and food

● Imagine turning your trash into airtime or groceries by recycling it and receiving virtual currency as a result.

This is the basic idea behind a Cape Town start-up, Regenize, that has just scooped R1.3m in funding by winning a South African Breweries social innovation award.

Chad Robertson and Nkazimlo Miti came up with the idea of a free recycling service that rewards people in a virtual currency called Remali.

“Regenize partners with waste-pickers during the collection process, providing them with uniforms, transport, mobile devices and access to sorted recyclables,” said Robertson, who is doing his master’s in inclusive innovation at the University of Cape Town.

He and Miti are piloting the model in the Athlone community of Bridgetown, where 300 households have signed up.

Some residents are “incentivised by the Remali” while others are motivated by the idea that “the waste-pickers are being incorporated and given dignity ... as it is more socially acceptable because they are in uniforms and riding the container-carrying tricycles. That is very different from being shunned as a vagrant,” said Robertson.

Bridgetown resident Nolita Abrahams said this week: “I signed up the very first day they started. To be honest, it was the airtime vouchers that motivated me. I don’t throw anything away any more. I will clean it and put it in the recycling bag.”

For Kelis Mthethi of Khayelitsha, the rewards are just as satisfying.

“What I like is talking to people and keeping the community clean. I ride the tricycle around the community doing collections when I come here twice a week.”

What are Regenize’s ambitions?

Miti said: “Five years from now, we’re in multiple communities and different provinces. We have a robust Remali service that goes beyond rewards and encourages people to take part in environmental activities and other green initiatives that uplift the community.”