One man’s trash is another man’s building solution

Seeing debris being dumped near Naturena, South of Johannesburg has inspired Phethuxolo Ngoyi to run a successful business in recycling construction and demolition waste.

The 49-year-old Ngoyi of Emdeni in Soweto is the owner of Vanquisher Building Solutions, a construction company that uses 80 percent waste material and 20 percent new material in all its construction projects.

The company, which he started in 2012, repurposes construction and demolition waste for reuse in the built industry.

“I saw a lot of rubble being dumped around local townships including cement slabs, old bricks, old tyres, and I thought something had to be done about this.” said Ngoyi.

The company also demolishes and rebuilds dilapidated buildings. During the demolishing process, it carefully removes bricks ensuring that they remain intact and reuse them when they build new projects.

“The longevity of the reconstructed buildings is the same as those built using newly manufactured material. This is why we screen and separate, to ensure that all the material used is in the right condition,” he said.

In 2019, Vanquisher Building Solutions constructed a children’s playground in one of the schools in Johannesburg.

“When I arrived, I saw an unsafe space for children to play. A lot of exposed bricks and unsafe objects laying around. While designing the plan of the playground, I found my niche and focused on designing and constructing playgrounds for Early Child Development (ECD) centres,” he explained.

To create a safe space for children to play, Ngoyi used tyre granules to build a rubber free ECD Micky Mouse playground.

“I took tyres granules which are made from old tyres and made a fall-safe playground which minimises impact when a child falls,” Ngoyi said.

Although the company has not yet received funding, Ngoyi has so far permanently employed three people through the business. He also temporarily employs more people when he works on big projects, and sometimes partners with sub-contractors to create more jobs. v