Environmental NGO hopes to make Tshwane the cleanest city
The NGO GreenALot is partnering with Pretoria residents to improve waste management and recycling efforts in an attempt to make the city one of the cleanest in Africa. The initiative uses a digital platform to coordinate household collections of recyclables and e-waste.
Why it matters
It highlights community-led environmental solutions to urban waste management challenges in rapidly growing metropolitan areas.
Local NGO GreenALot says with the help of residents, Pretoria can be ranked among the top five cleanest cities on the continent.
Pretoria was ranked 11th in a 2025 continental survey.GreenALot cofounder Gontse Molelekeng-Adeniran said showcasing ordinary citizens’ efforts could help move Pretoria into the top five.
“In 2025, we asked ourselves what could be done about packaging waste ending up in our city’s critical waterways. We realised that part of the problem and part of the solution is in households. My sister, Kgautsang Molelekeng, and I decided to obsess over this problem and this opportunity. We were eventually incubated by mLab, where we refined the business model,” Molelekeng-Adeniran said.
GreenALot’s database of households joins their platform, residents gather their dry recyclables and e-waste, and book a collection via WhatsApp.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in