Plastic waste collection solving DRC's sanitation and unemployment woes

The city of Kinshasa is solving a major waste and employment issue.

Young men employed by a private company that was given the task to clean up the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo are making it big.

The company GTR is responsible for the exclusive collection of plastic wastes for recycling and have done a good job at that so far.

In two ways, they help to maintain the city clean, and also solve a major unemployment situation that affects more than 59% of people in the Congolese capital.

“The GTR helped me out of a state of unemployment and now I have a stable job. Today I am employed at the GTR,” Heir Mikoti sorting Point Leader said.

After a preliminary work of sorting and packaging, they must be exported to European countries.

The DRC as a country does not have sufficient equipment to see through the recycling process effectively. But local expertise may come in handy soon.

For now, the process goes from collection to counting through sorting. Each week 100 bales of waste are collected.

“The compressor will press down to a certain level. And when it’s not full it will hit the bottom and then go on until it’s full. It can be felt, as it will hang at a certain level, after that then you can start moving,” Zadio Kazadi, a pre counting Point Leader added.

Even though more can be done, locals here attach seriousness to the work. They hope similar initiatives will grow in other parts of the country to make Kinshasa, the pearl of Central Africa.