Hunger Pushes KwaZulu-Natal Women to Recycle for Food

In the small community of Embo, west of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, women and children are crushing aluminium cans by hand in a desperate effort to earn enough to eat, according to reporting by Health-e News and carried by AllAfrica.

The scene captured by Health-e shows a small yellow hammer in a child’s hands flattening cans outside a modest home — an image that crystallises the daily reality of food insecurity in parts of South Africa’s eastern coastal province. Recycling work, often carried out by women and children, brings in only a fraction of what families need, yet it has become one of the few income options available in communities where formal employment is scarce.

A wider crisis

South Africa has long faced high unemployment, with KwaZulu-Natal among the provinces most affected. For households without a steady income, even basic nutrition can be out of reach, pushing many into the informal economy. Selling aluminium cans for scrap is one of the more visible responses, but the returns are small and the work physically demanding.

Embo lies in the greater Durban area, where dense urban poverty meets rural hinterland, and households often rely on a mix of social grants, remittances and informal work to survive. Researchers and health organisations have repeatedly warned that food insecurity in the province affects a significant share of the population, with women and children bearing the heaviest burden.

The practice has also drawn concern from child-welfare advocates, who note that children who work alongside adults in the recycling trade miss out on schooling. As AllAfrica reported, the work is a stark reminder of how deep hunger cuts into the lives of South Africa’s most vulnerable families.

Sources

This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.

• AllAfrica — South Africa: Hunger Is Driving KZN Women to Recycle for Food