After realizing that existing waste management strategies in Lesotho weren't working, Limpho Thoahlane set up her own recycling station. Now she teaches youth how to process plastic into jewelry and other items.
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00:00How is this woman inspiring a new generation of eco-warriors to go beyond traditional recycling?
00:07And why does trash bother her so much?
00:09It's a reflection of a society that is not taking care of the environment and resources around them.
00:15Meet Dimpo Trotsani, the Masut who teaches the youth how to deal with waste in their country.
00:20Before we find out what makes her believe that recycling matters,
00:24let's have a closer look at how she reuses dumped materials.
00:31We have different steps of processing trash to the final product.
00:36It starts with collection, and so once we have the plastic in here,
00:40we weigh the plastic because we also need to know how much plastic we're receiving,
00:45what type of plastic we're receiving.
00:47Once we've weighed the plastic, we sort it out into the different types,
00:50because plastic has different types.
00:52From different types, it's now to different colours.
00:56Different colours is also depending on some of the products that we've made,
01:00and that we make, that people want specific colours, and so we try and have solid colours.
01:08Then once we have the plastic, we use our three machines.
01:11So we have the machine that breaks down the plastic into smaller pieces,
01:15and then we have another machine that makes the final product.
01:19It sort of heats up the plastic to a certain temperature and injects it into a mould.
01:25A mould is what gives it shape, and then our third machine,
01:28it's an extrusion machine that just spews out the plastic into a string-like,
01:34and it can be used for string, for weaving, or string for anything.
01:38Dimpo realised that existing waste management strategies weren't working.
01:42What was the biggest challenge to changing the way people viewed trash,
01:46and how did that inspire her journey as a climate activist?
01:49In 2019, we had a photography workshop.
01:53So we were supposed to go out and take pictures of what we thought would be the cause of climate change in Malaysia.
01:59And so we went all around Malaysia, we saw a lot of deforestation,
02:05but what stood out for me was the litter, plastic waste, or just waste in general,
02:11of how much was actually there, and there was nothing, no bin, nothing.
02:15And so I thought that I wanted to do that, I wanted to change that.
02:20A study by the UNDP in 2021 states that 69% of Lesotho's waste is plastic,
02:26of which only 20% is formally collected.
02:29The bulk is either illegally dumped or burnt, causing air pollution,
02:33which leads to respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.
02:37But Lesotho is a small country, with a population of only 2.2 million people.
02:42Does the waste they produce really make a difference?
02:46I don't think we have so much of the waste, it's just that it's everywhere, you know.
02:52Yes, it's collected, but it goes back to a bigger landfill that when it's windy, it comes back to us.
03:00It's just that, it's just everywhere, we're not putting it anywhere,
03:04there's no waste management infrastructure, so we're seeing it as a lot.
03:10One of the biggest and easiest, lowest hanging fruits that we all can make as communities and as Basotho
03:17is to stop taking plastic bags at the shops.
03:20And that would also, in the long run, force shopping shops and commercial enterprises
03:26to reconsider the amount of packaging that is provided.
03:30With single-use plastics still readily available in Lesotho,
03:34and a population that is resistant to change,
03:37why does Dimpo think that what she does will actually make a difference?
03:40When I started, there was little to no recycling at all,
03:45or at least I didn't know of any other people who were doing the same thing.
03:49And so I think since we've started, I can probably count to at least above five different people
03:55who are now recycling, who want to start recycling,
03:59and some of them are the people that have visited us here.
04:02We have an outreach program that is solely based on education and environmentalism in schools.
04:08Schools are where we can find young people in a space where they already get it,
04:12so it's easiest for us to do that.
04:14And so we do that through the programming,
04:16and then we open our doors for different organizations and institutions that deal with young people
04:22to come and learn about recycling in the space, to actually use the machines.
04:28And then we also invite them on our annual cleanup campaigns.
04:32If one person makes a decision today to reduce the amount of waste that they produce,
04:37even at household level or at individual,
04:39that will affect the amount of accumulated waste across the country.
04:49The biggest goal that we're looking forward to right now
04:52is a waste management infrastructure in Morijia that works along with PEHA.
04:57It's a system that we want to be able to pilot to say that this can be done on a national scale,
05:04that in every district we need a recycling center that works with, I guess, would be a landfill.
05:11If you properly turn it into a structure that collects and sorts and takes different materials to different recyclers
05:21and of course we have been making very small products that can just fit in a small little bag.
05:28We're now looking to making bigger products.
05:32We're looking into furniture and trying to see how we can actually establish other like businesses across Lesotho.
05:42With the effects of climate change affecting rural communities through harsher winters, hotter summers, and extended droughts,
05:49Team Potratlane believes we need to double our efforts to save the planet.
05:55PEHA Plastics is a small cog in a bigger wheel as she challenges Basotho youth to step up
06:01and control their country's narrative around climate change.
06:05Now.