Trash for cash: South Africans fight hunger with digital currency

Mimi Ngalula smiles for a photo as she holds up her recycling card with unique QR code that monitors her points in Lorentzville, South Africa. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

JOHANNESBURG: Mimi Ngalula never imagined cardboard boxes, cans and bottles would save her five children from hunger during lockdown, but over the past four months, digging through Johannesburg’s trash cans has become her lifeline.

Ngalula, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is one of hundreds of people in the neighbourhood of Lorentzville who joined a project to exchange recyclables for a digital currency that they use to buy much-needed groceries.