# Urban Surfer's Sifiso Gumbi on Organizing South Africa's Recycling System

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sustainability-in-your-ear-838586/urban-surfer-s-sifiso-gumbi-on-organizing-south-africa-s-recycling-system
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sustainability-in-your-ear-838586/urban-surfer-s-sifiso-gumbi-on-organizing-south-africa-s-recycling-system.md
Podcast: [Sustainability In Your Ear](https://stenobird.com/podcast/sustainability-in-your-ear-838586)
Published: 2026-06-15T10:55:02+00:00
Episode link: https://earth911.com/podcast/sustainability-in-your-ear-urban-surfers-sifiso-gumbi-on-organizing-south-africas-recycling-system/
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72491047/siye_interview_sifiso_gumbi_on_organizing_south_africas_recycling_sytem.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2888

## Resource

In South Africa, informal waste pickers recover between 80% and 90% of all plastic and paper that actually gets recycled. There are about 140,000 of these reclaimers, who walk through cities and landfills, pulling trolleys and selling what they collect to make a living. Each person can keep up to 24 tons of material out of landfills every year. Together, they saved municipalities R750 million (about $45 million) in landfill costs in just one year, yet they do this work without recognition, protection, or a formal role in the waste system. Sifiso Gumbi began as a reclaimer at 19, collecting scrap metal in Soweto after school. After 15 years in the informal recycling economy, he founded Urban Surfer South Africa , a Johannesburg-based social enterprise that believes the people already doing recycling work should be supported and equipped, not replaced. Urban Surfer creates essential tools like PPE and collection trolleys with personalized number plates, helping reclaimers become recognized workers in their neighborhoods. The organization also runs four recycling hubs where reclaimers can sort and bale their materials to sell at better prices, cutting out the middlemen who used to buy their collections for much less than market value.Urban Surfer tracks everything with GPS-enabled trolleys and a live dashboard, and this approach has increased reclaimer incomes by up to 300%. Sifiso talks about why dignity is key to better recycling rates, how aluminum can prices show what gets collected and what ends up in landfills, and what it would take to expand this model across South Africa and the continent. One key idea keeps coming up in the conversation: reclaimers are like an R&D department that no one asks for advice. In South Africa, aluminum cans sell for 28 to 30 rand p…

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