Konica Minolta SA assists in development of recycling business

Ashley Radebe and Juanathan du Toit, owners of New Circle Green Solutions, have for the past six months received intensive training and comprehensive business coaching under the leadership of Konica Minolta South Africa.

Today, the business successfully collects empty toners and cartridges from Konica Minolta’s customer base in the Tshwane municipality and delivers the components to a designated area at the organisation’s Pretoria branch, where they are counted.

Once the haul is large enough, the toners and cartridges are taken to a recycling company, where they are both stripped and dismantled. The plastic goes through a recycling chopping process to be used in other products. The steel and aluminium are sold as scrap metal.

Viable avenue

“Whilst training and monitoring New Circle Green Solutions, we witnessed that the pick up of used cartridges and toners from clients is a viable avenue worth pursuing further,” explains Laetitia Coetzer, special project manager at Konica Minolta South Africa. “Although New Circle Green Solutions is Tshwane-focused at the moment, we are aiming to extend the business to service the Johannesburg metro as well.”

She adds that training and mentoring undertaken by Konica Minolta South Africa encapsulated all facets of running a small business, from determining the business plan, through to communication, client liaison, time management, tax, insurance and much more.

“It is most pleasing to see our small business development project bearing fruit. For the next three years, New Circle Green Solutions will be a beneficiary of Konica Minolta South Africa’s Supplier Development programme. Most importantly, however, the company is a separate legal entity and we are excited to see it strengthen by providing its services to more companies,” concludes Coetzer.