28 Mar 2022

The first-ever paper mill plant, Strides of Success has been established in Botswana. Strides of Success, a newly established paper recycling plant and by far the largest in Southern Africa, will derive value from waste and financially stands to boost vulnerable groups to earn a decent living through waste management.

Speaking in an interview recently, Marketing Manager for Strides of Success, Mr Isaac Kgosiyareng said the plant would benefit the environment in the sense that it would alleviate the climate change crisis.

Additionally, Mr Kgosiyareng said the plant would advance people living in diverse communities their buy-back programme, facilitates collecting, sorting, transporting, manufacturing and purchasing of newly-made products in a repeatable cycle.

“We buy collected waste paper from our communities and because we are a plant, we produce raw materials which we later sell to businesses to process it into finished goods,” he said.

The marketing manager highlighted that local businesses had struggled with raw materials, and often sourced it from South Africa however, through our establishment we stand to bridge the gap.

He said through its strategic partnership with the local government, Strides of Success collected 2000 tonnes of paper per month, towards the production of raw material.

He said businesses or aspiring entrepreneurs could buy the raw material from them and use it to produce toilet paper, tissue, packaging material and shopping paper bags, among others.

“Currently, and under our pilot phase, we have employed 35 people, once fully operational we will have 150 employees under our wing in the first phase.

We hope to provide more jobs under the second phase being direct employment,” he said.

Through the value chain provided by Strides of Success, factories could mitigate against abrupt poverty by setting up in communities and ensuring employment creation, he said.

Mr Kgosiyareng said over and above supporting businesses, with raw materials they also buy collected waste paper from communities; something he said could economically empower households.

A pile of waste paper costs P0.40/kg and this allows local entrepreneurs to acquire mini-trucks which they could use to collect and transport paper to the plant, he said.

He stated that the company has allowed women clusters to set up and harness prospective businesses in the value chain.

The marketing manager stated that retail outlets get their packaging paper bags outside the country and this demonstrated the level at which the country was at in terms of tapping into the value chain presented by recycling waste paper.

He said a surprisingly large number of products could be made from recycled materials: fine writing and printing papers; newspapers and magazines; household paper products like paper towels, napkins, facial and toilet tissue; office products like copy paper, file folders, envelopes, as well as machine tape; packaging products like cereal packages, egg cartons, gift boxes, and cardboard boxes; game boards; animal bedding; and insulation. ENDS