When Douw Bezuidenhout joined his parents in 2017 in the tiny waste removal business they had started in the Western Cape town of Riversdal, they had exactly three bakkies and a trailer with which they serviced small shops in Riversdale and George.
Today, Henque Waste Pty Ltd has a fleet of 34 trucks collecting waste from large companies, schools, colleges, estates and municipalities, no fewer than 134 permanent employees and two buy-back centres supporting a growing network of hundreds of community-based waste collectors.
Douw, who studied business and learned discipline in various jobs before joining his parents at the age of 28, says he relentlessly knocked on the doors of the region’s bigger entities for their business.
“There is a misperception that they need to contract the big industrial waste removal companies. But in truth those big guys subcontract out to smaller operations anyway – they just put a huge markup on the bill,” says Douw.
His persistence and refusal to accept no for an answer finally paid off in 2018 when a regional corporation awarded Henque Waste its first major contract. Backed by his promise not to invoice clients unless they were completely satisfied, he proved the company’s reliability and professionalism. The contract opened the floodgates, helping Henque Waste secure additional clients and convince banks to finance its expanding fleet and equipment.
Growth not only happened in terms of tonnage and geographical area. The company’s operations have evolved into a sophisticated system of sorting, advising, training and recycling.
“Waste management is far from just a logistical removal exercise,” says Douw. Waste is a resource that can be exploited if you approach it in innovative ways. The problem in a region such as the Garden Route is that the value inherent in collected recyclables is often wiped out by the long distances it has to travel to the big recycling centres that are willing to buy it.
The clear answer is to build such a recycling centre, says Douw, who is setting off on an overseas study tour to investigate the latest methods of processing and recycling food waste.
The most exciting aspect for Douw about his business is that it provides a solution for two of the most pressing issues in South Africa – joblessness and environmental degradation. “When you unlock the value in waste, you do so for the whole community,” he says.