The Problem

Picture Mr Ndlovo; 54 years old with no employment and hasn’t earned a salary for over 5 years and has 4 children to feed. He heard about the Litter4tokens campaign in 2015 and started picking up a bag of plastic, paper, glass and tin and collecting his tokens. He is now feeding himself and his family with 4 children and his grandma. He earns R1200 a month by collecting 240 bags of litter (recycling) from the river banks and communities.

This is life changing, and needed to help the underfunded poorer communities. We all share the same ocean and the effects of dumping in any country affects the world. The cost of doing NOT doing something is worse than doing nothing.

Our campaign looks at how to mitigate the source of litter from the ground up, which is just as crucial as looking at the issue from the Top down. Support and awareness is needed as projects like Litter4tokens are underfunded.

The scale of the problem is so big as there are no plastic collectors and no infrastructure in many of these communities, with the result that litter is dumped everywhere in rivers, fields etc.

We are at an inflection point. Governments and consumers are viewing plastic pollution as an urgent environmental problem, yet one without a clear solution. 91% of plastic waste ends up in landfill, incinerated or in our oceans and environment.

Community

Community members collect recyclable materials which they drop off at their local collection point.
For each bag of recyclables they collect, they receive a token which is then redeemed at the token shop for everyday staples such as porridge, mielie meal and rice as well as clothing.

Schools

Getting schools involved and helping their community.
Litter4tokens and Petco are running an initiative for schools. The pupils collect recyclable materials which are then collected and sold, with all money raised being used to purchase stock for the local Token Shop.

Mermaids Tears

In association with the World Nurdle Association, Litter4Tokens has developed the Mermaid Tear Catcher™ which was introduced at the 2019 Ballito Pro.