As the global community prepares to celebrate World Environment Day on 5 June under the theme Climate Action, the Mr Price Foundation is showcasing how South Africa's bright minds can contribute to environmental sustainability and economic growth.
Through the Waste Innovation Challenge, delivered in partnership with the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) program, the Foundation is moving beyond traditional cleanup campaigns. Instead, it is changing the narrative by presenting plastic waste not just as an environmental crisis, but as an untapped economic opportunity, inspiring South Africa's youth to re-imagine waste as a driver of economic opportunity.
South Africa generates over 122 million tonnes of waste annually, of which approximately 18% is plastic, yet only 10% of that plastic is currently recycled. At the same time, lakhs of youth are cut off from the economy. Waste Innovation Challenge It serves as a visionary intervention that addresses these twin crises simultaneously. By inviting university students and alumni (aged 18-34) from all 26 public universities in South Africa to transform plastic waste into commercially viable business enterprises, this initiative treats environmental urgency as a catalyst for sustainable economic resilience and a pathway to new industries.
Unlike typical environmental awareness campaigns, this initiative operates as a structured, multi-stage green entrepreneurship pipeline that utilizes students and recent graduates to take development from early-stage ideas to commercially viable, market-focused solutions. It provides a platform to identify, validate and refine innovations in plastic waste recycling, contributing to South Africa's circular economy. The program combines capacity building, intensive development and competitive screening to identify solutions that can be supported for full realisation.
Participants recently completed a six-week series of intensive online workshops to help hone their innovations. In the month of June, students will submit proposals detailing their innovations, which will undergo rigorous evaluation to shortlist the top 20 finalists. These finalists will advance to an intensive bootcamp where they will further refine their solutions in preparation for the showcase. They are competing for a total prize pool of R255,000, which includes a first place grant of R100,000 in seed capital to scale their waste-to-wealth businesses.
While South African youth have immense scientific and entrepreneurial ambition, growing a green startup within the local ecosystem presents unique challenges.
“True climate action requires that we transform our thinking from a consumer mindset to a producer mindset, focused on building sustainable commercial ecosystems,” says Duduzile Mathabela, entrepreneurship development program manager at the Mr Price Foundation.
“Our conversations with young innovators during the challenge revealed that the primary barrier is not a lack of ecological passion or technological innovation. Rather, the barrier lies in the developmental support to enter new markets and industries. Many brilliant, student-led concepts struggle largely due to limited exposure and knowledge on the practical realities of building a sustainable business. By incorporating practical development support into the program, we ensure that our youth are equipped with the tools to transform ideas into viable enterprises.”
For Mr Price's Foundation, this R1.3 million collective investment in the green economy pipeline is not a standalone competition. It serves as a key blueprint that delivers the Foundation's overarching goal: to empower 500,000 young South Africans to become economically resilient, self-reliant business owners by 2035.
By collaborating across higher education and the entrepreneurship ecosystem, the challenge shows that the next generation does not need to be passive spectators or mere beneficiaries of climate action. Equipped with the right support, they are emerging as practical Africa's green entrepreneurs who will actively transform South Africa's waste crisis into economic prosperity.