Meet the inspiring Steven Kganelo, who has created opportunity out of waste.
Steven Kganelo has experienced the hardships of unemployment first hand, but thanks to an opportunity given to him by Wasteplan, he now finds himself thriving at the beginning of a successful career.
While he is now a Commercial Sorter Trainer, he started his journey as an entry-level sorter in September last year. Helped along by proper training, he quickly excelled and was sent to a variety of Cape Town hotels – becoming known as the ‘problem solver’, for his ability to quickly detect problem areas at each property.
“As I was always available and committed to my job, my managers saw my potential and encouraged me to grow. When I was sent to the Vineyard Hotel, I knew it would be a challenge – it is a busy hotel with very high standards. They are also very environmentally conscious and I could see how important waste management was for them.” Says, Kganelo,
The problem Kganelo encounters most often is seeing recycling being dumped as ‘general waste’. Due to his keen eye and the pride he takes in his job, he was able to take what was previously thirty bins of general waste, and over time, reduce this to only three bins. With his help, the Vineyard Hotel was able to report outstanding recycling figures in September this year – with 98% of all waste being recycled.
Commenting on his time at the Vineyard Hotel, Kganelo says, “I’ll be honest – I was out to impress. I studied the habits of my predecessors, their weaknesses and failures and learned as much as I could from them in order to understand the areas I most needed to work on.”
While Kganelo still advises on the recycling operations at the Vineyard Hotel, he has a new challenge to work on – having been recently been promoted to the position of Commercial Sorter Trainer, he now visits sorters at malls and hotels to train them and share his knowledge and skills.
In barely a year, Steven has moved from unemployed, to a trainer – but this is hardly the end of the road for this dedicated worker. Going forward, his next goal is to be a Contract Manager, which will bring with it the opportunity to ensure that plants run smoothly, while also allowing him to use his natural flair with people to communicate with clients.
