When Cecelia Mutsi walks the streets of Virginia in Matjhabeng collecting used Tetra Pak cartons, she does not just see waste, but food for her children, school fees, and a future built on dignity.
In just one year, the collection rate for post-consumer Liquid Board Packaging (LBP), the cartons used for milk, juice, and other beverages, has surged from 8% to 26% – a threefold increase.
Behind this growth is a strategy driven by Tetra Pak Southern Africa, its producer responsibility organisation Petco, and a network of partners including Mpact and Gayatri Paper Mills.
Mutsi sells her cartons to a local buy-back centre, one of 205 now actively collecting LBP across the country. She is not working in isolation, but within a structured system that connects informal collectors to large-scale recyclers. Mutsi runs Camte Recycling, a buy-back centre empowering women waste pickers. When she first started, few saw value in cartons. But after Tetra Pak and Petco’s intervention including bulk bag distribution and awareness campaigns, her centre collected 2,148kg in a single October 2024 drive.
“Now, even schoolchildren bring cartons from home. People finally understand this isn’t trash, it’s income,” said Mutsi.
