Sustainability of Social Enterprises Involved in Waste Collection and Recycling Activities: Lessons from Tanzania

This article investigates how social enterprises providing waste collection and recycling services overcame start-up challenges and sustain their operations. Based on analysis of five cases in Tanzania, it is evident that waste collection and recycling enterprises start as entrepreneurial entities driven by the opportunity to fill the service delivery gap left by the state. Although the enterprises studied have had a social impact, they have experienced several challenges, including limited access to resources, negative perception of their activities, competition, unsupportive policies, unreliable supply of raw materials, dishonesty of staff and/or waste pickers and poor working conditions. However, the enterprises sustained themselves through good management, engaging the right teams, supporting waste pickers, marketing and networking, developing their skills, using appropriate technology, reinvesting their earnings, diversifying and being members of cooperatives. The article contributes to knowledge by combining the traditional entrepreneurship and socio-environmental entrepreneurship perspectives to explore the sustainability of waste collection and recycling enterprises.