Sambia: Creating an income with environmental protection

Young people from Livingstone in Sambia literally stink what they have to endure every day. That is why you have implemented a simple but clever idea: you collect and sell the trash. They developed the concept together with young people from Germany.

Livingstone is not far from the Victoria Falls, the unique natural attraction of this region. What visitors can see is above all garbage. Smalling and smoking waste piles up on the streets. The poisonous smoke fogs up the residential areas and makes people sick. And that is not the only problem, according to 21-year-old Jacqueline. "Important raw materials such as glass, plastic and paper are destroyed instead of use them sensibly."

But something is happening in Livingstone. In the “Trash4cash” initiative, young people came together to collect and utilize garbage. Jacqueline is already on his feet at seven o'clock in the early. Dressed in a blue overall, pounding and your friends knock on the doors of the surrounding houses. What you are looking for are waste made of plastic, glass and paper. They buy it from the neighborhood. Payment is made by weight. The collection goods are sorted and pressed into bales on a company premises that the city provides them free of charge. After that, the recycling is sold to recycling on major acts in the capital Lusaka.

The exciting history of the project: In 2018, Terre des Hommes and his partner “Environment Africa” initiated a youth exchange between Livingstone and the German logistics company Dachser Group SE & Co. KG. First of all, trainees traveled from the company to Livingstone to find out about the waste problem on site. The following year followed a return visit by the 15 activists from Livingstone. Jacqueline remembers: "In Germany we were able to take a look at forms of waste disposal in several cities. This gave us the idea of ​​building a recycling system in our city." The project will be funded from the beginning by Terre des Hommes and the Dachser Group.

The success of the clever youth initiative is impressive: more and more families are separating the garbage and selling it to “Trah4cash” so the mountains of garbage in the streets are smaller and everyone in the city benefits. For the 15 young people, the idea “garbage for money” has even become a safe source of employment. A prime example of innovative young entrepreneurs that could do school. Also elsewhere in the world.