COLLABORATORS

We believe that collaboration makes us stronger. Since 2019, the Chair in Waste and Society has worked with various researchers, organisations, consultancies, and other entities to address waste together. Here are some of our longstanding collaborators.

PROF DERICK BLAAUW

is a professor in the School of Economic Sciences at the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus. He and Prof Schenck have worked together on several projects for over three decades. Prior to joining the North-West University, he lectured in Economics at the University of Johannesburg and the Soweto and Bloemfontein Campuses of Vista University. Prof Blaauw’s research interests and experience largely lie in labour and development economics. His current work focuses on the socio-economic dynamics of vulnerable groups in the informal economy. Prof Blaauw has an extensive list of publications in accredited national and international journals to his credit, and he has presented many conference and research papers at local and international forums.

PROF KOTIE VILJOEN

is affiliated with the Department Of Economics and Econometrics at the University of Johannesburg. She serves as a co-researcher and collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society. She is keenly interested in researching waste-related issues with regards to a variety of role-players in the recycling industry e.g. socio-economic aspects of street and landfill waste pickers including income, food security, and health risks; management of waste pickers on landfills; waste management and factors affecting recycling at household level; roles, constraints, price structuring, interaction and value-adding activities of buy-back centres and recyclers in the recycling industry and behavioural aspects of different role-players in the recycling industry. She is also an expert in questionnaire design and data analysis.

PROF NICOLETTE ROMAN

is the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, Families and Society at the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. Her research focuses on Family Science. She serves as a co-researcher and collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society.

PROF ANMAR PRETORIUS

is an associate professor in the School of Economic Sciences at the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), where she currently teaches econometrics. In keeping with her research interest in financial economics, her doctoral thesis investigated South Africa’s financial market integration with the rest of the world. She serves as the convenor of TRADE’s economic development programme.

AQUILA ENVIRONMENTAL

is an environmental consultancy consisting of Charlotte Nell and Monique Coetzee. Their area of expertise includes waste minimisation, data accumulation and analysis. Aquila has served partnered with the Chair in Waste and Society since 2018.

MOSSELBANK RIVER CONSERVATION TEAM (MRCT)

is a community-driven non-profit organisation dedicated to restoring and protecting the Mosselbank River and its wetlands. Since 2019, the team has partnered with the Chair in Waste and Society, supporting illegal dumping surveys, tyre waste management and waste to energy studies.

HUGH TYRRELL

is the founder of GreenEdge Communications. He is a specialist in recycling and waste management communications, marketing and promotion, separation-at-source and behaviour change campaigns, PR, videos and materials production. He is a collaborator and consultant of the Chair in Waste and Society since 2021.

KRUGER2CANYONS WASTE MANAGEMENT TEAM

works to develop sustainable and community-driven waste management solutions within the K2C Biosphere Region. They collaborate with the Chair in Waste and Society on the AHP Baseline Studies in Maruleng and Bushbuckridge to better understand the diaper and sanitary pad waste crisis.

PROF CLAUDINE ROOS

is based in the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University. Claudine has collaborated closely with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in student supervision and examination. Her research focuses on Integrated waste management, waste governance, and understanding waste dynamics in protected areas.

GROUNDWORK

is a non-profit environmental justice organisation. They collaborate with the Chair in Waste and Society on community-led separation at source (S@S) and waste picker integration interventions since 2024.

UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG’S PROCESS, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY STATION (UJ PEETS)

is a university-based applied research and innovation centre that drives technology development and sustainability within South Africa’s green circular economy. Their collaboration with the Chair in Waste and Society focuses on addressing diaper waste challenges in rural South African communities by exploring sustainable solutions like small-scale incinerators.

JOHAN VAN NIEKERK

is the Manager of Waste and Environmental Services at Swellendam Municipality. With over 30 years of combined academic, technical, and industry experience across waste operations, environmental compliance, education, and industrial design, his career spans six countries. Johan is currently collaborating with the Chair in Waste and Society on participatory research aimed at developing real-world solutions for the Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHP) sector and other waste-related initiatives.

PROF MARTIN DE WIT

is a South African economist, currently holding the position of Professor at the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University. His teaching speciality is related to the economic approaches to environmental management and policy, in particular drawing from the fields of environmental and ecological economics. He serves as a co-supervisor and research collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society.

DR ADEEL SAMBO

is as a lecturer at Cape Peninsula University of Technology whose primary interest lies in developmental mentorship. Since 2022, he has been involved with the Chair in Waste and Society, contributing to projects focused on waste pickers, waste management, and the circular economy. Furthermore, he has collaborated with Professor Schenck on initiatives addressing the Sustainable Development Goals.

THE MOSS GROUP

is a research, problem-solving and strategy consulting company. They have collaborated with the Chair in Waste and Society on multiple research projects, including a potential Deposit Return System, job creation in the PET beverage container waste and the bakkie collector recycling sector, waste beneficiation, and mismanaged absorbent hygiene product waste.

PROF PETER DANNENBERG

is a professor of human geography, focusing on city and regional development, economic geography, and globalization. His research integrates conceptual perspectives from global value chains, production networks, resilience approaches, cluster and innovation studies, and resource economics. With the Chair in Waste and Society, Prof Catherina Schenck, he leads the DFG-funded project “Digital Practices of E-waste Businesses in the Global South - The Case of Cape Town in South Africa.”

PROF GEORGE ANGELOPULO

is affiliated with the Department of Communication Science, Unisa. He serves as a research collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society. His areas of expertise in waste include urban development and productive connectivity and his research interests are research methodology and theory development.

PROF DANIEL TEVERA

is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Environmental Studies and Tourism at the University of the Western Cape. He has published several books and many influential articles on issues relating to waste and livelihoods, migrant spaces, food security, and African urbanism. He has extensive research experience in southern Africa. He is the inaugural Programme Coordinator of the Leadership for Environment and Development in Southern Africa (LEAD-SA).

PROF JOCHEN PETERSEN

is affiliated with the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. He has great interest in using heap and in-situ leach processes for treating low-grade ores (especial of chalcopyrite), waste and tailings materials and even electronic waste. He is also putting a stronger emphasis on evaluating extractive technology in the broader socio-economic context, both locally and globally in terms of commodity cycles. He serves as a researchcollaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society.

PROF MARTIN OTENG-ABABIO

is a professor in urban geography and the Head of Department of the Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, Legon. He also doubles as the Project Coordinator for PeriPeri U (i.e. ‘Partners Enhancing Resilience for People Exposed to Risks’), a platform for 12 African universities’ partnership to reduce disaster risks. As environmental geographer, his research interests span broadly from urban studies with a specialty in the waste economy and environmental management policy, waste governance and waste-induced entrepreneurship, to a variety of role-players in the recycling industry, infrastructure services, environmental risk reduction, and the problems of informality. Prof Oteng-Ababio has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters. He is research collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society.

DR KIRSTEN BARNES

is a waste economy analyst at GreenCape and collaborates with the Chair in Waste and Society. Her research interests include the circular and secondary materials economy in South Africa, with particular focus on the informal ‘waste’ sector, organic secondary material, dry recyclables (packaging) and builders’ rubble.

DR MELANIE SAMSON

is a senior lecturer in Human Geography at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her expertise and research interest lie with waste pickers, waste picker integration, the waste value chain, recycling and articulations of gender, race, class and nationality. She serves as a supervisor and research collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society.

DR JOSEPHINE LETSOALO

is a lecturer at the University of Limpopo and collaborates with the Chair in Waste and Society. Her area of expertise in waste is waste management and tourism. Her areas of interest include recycling, waste management at tourism destinations and environmental impacts of waste.

DR JOSEPHINE LETSOALO

DR CHIDI NZEADIBE

is affiliated with the Department of Geography at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. He serves as a co-researcher and collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society. His areas of expertise in waste and research interests include waste picking and informal sector recycling, resource recovery and entrepreneurship in informal solid waste management in African cities, solid waste management in urban governance, solid waste management and livelihood, socio-environmental justice in solid waste management, political ecology and environmental and social impact assessment.

DR SUZALL TIMM

is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Her research interests include; environmental governance, urban informality, municipal waste management policy, waste pickers/reclaimers. She is a research collaborator and the former convener of the Chair in Waste and Society’s Webinar Series.

DR BRADLEY RINK

is affiliated with the Department of Geography, Environmental Studies & Tourism at the University of the Western Cape. He serves as co-supervisor with the Chair in Waste and Society. As a geographer and mobilities scholar he is interested broadly in waste mobilities – the movement and circulation of waste on both local and global scales. Such mobilities are contingent on subjectivity (who is moving the waste and why); practice (the platforms used to move waste); and space (the extent to which the waste travels).

WILMA STRYDOM

is affiliated with Live4Design. She serves as a consultant to the Chair in Waste and Society. Her areas of expertise in waste and research interests include qualitative and quantitative research, human recycling behaviour, communication and desktop publishing.

ANTON NAHMAN

is a Principal environmental economist at the CSIR: Smart Places Cluster. He serves as a collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society. His areas of expertise in waste and research interest include economics of waste management, economic valuation of waste resources and waste-related externalities, assessment of economic vs. regulatory policy instruments, and cost-benefit analysis of waste-related policies and programs.

ROELIEN DU PLESSIS

is affiliated with Unisa. She serves as a co-researcher and collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society. Her areas of expertise in waste and research interests include composting and waste management.

BELINDA LANGENHOVEN

is an official within the Waste Management Directorate of the Western Cape Government’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning. Her focus areas includes waste policy development and implementation, waste minimisation and the waste economy. She serves as a collaborator to the Chair in Waste and Society.

BELINDA BOOKER

is a Project and Training Manager at the PET Recycling Company NPC (PETCO). She serves as a collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society. She has been driving PETCO’s visible collection and training programme and has helped collectors, formal, and informal to improve their efficiencies as well as the quantity and quality of PET and other recyclables collected. She mentors hundreds of entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, supported over 300 SMME’s and co-operatives and contributed to the education through national schools recycling competitions.

CUZETTE DU PLESSIS

is the Research Innovation and Community Liaison officer at the Rural Development and Innovation Hub (RDIH) from the University of Limpopo. Waste management is a priority area for the Hub and closely collaborate with the Chair in Waste and Society. The RDIH facilitates access to local communities and align community priorities with future learning and research opportunities.

DR HESTER ROBERTS

is a senior lecturer in Environmental Health at the University of Central University of Technology, Free State. Her expertise and research interest include solid waste management (abattoirs and landfills), environmental impact assessments, waste management strategies and environmental, health and social impact on community wellbeing.

THEA SCHOEMAN

is a lecturer in the department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Her expertise and research interest include recycling behaviour, drivers of waste separation at source, e-waste, and waste pickers. She serves as a supervisor and research collaborator with the Chair in Waste and Society.