South Africa’s waste crisis is also one of its greatest untapped economic opportunities. Each year, more than 100 million tonnes of waste is generated, much of it ending up in landfills despite its clear potential to contribute to a thriving circular economy. With recycling rates already outperforming global averages, the foundation for a new industrial sector is emerging.

At the same time, 7.7 million young South Africans remain outside employment, education, or training. Addressing this challenge requires a shift in perspective, reframing waste not as an endpoint but as a valuable economic input and positioning youth as drivers of this transformation.

This is where the strategic role of Mr Price Foundation and its partners becomes critical. Through the Waste Innovation Challenge, launched in collaboration with Universities South Africa and its Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme, we are actively building a pipeline of green entrepreneurs equipped to participate in this emerging sector.

The initiative goes beyond raising awareness by creating a structured pathway from ideation to enterprise. By leveraging universities as innovation hubs, it reaches young people at scale and equips them with practical skills in circular economy thinking, product development, and business modelling. It also addresses the often-overlooked middle stage of innovation by providing mentorship, funding, and real market exposure, enabling promising ideas to develop into commercially viable solutions.

Crucially, our value lies in convening this ecosystem. By aligning corporate resources, academic infrastructure, and public-sector participation, we connect youth potential to opportunity and enterprise. This approach ensures that solutions are not only innovative but scalable and rooted in real economic demand.

The path forward is clear: coordinated, cross-sector investment in youth-led innovation can transform South Africa’s waste burden into a catalyst for industrial growth.

Waste is not the end of the story; it is the raw material for a new economy. We’re enabling this shift with stakeholders across sectors playing their part, and the opportunity now is to build it.