TrashtoTextiles
By Lu Anqi
If you thought empty plastic bottles were no more than an environmental hazard, think again. A South African factory is getting ready to transform these polluting irritants into glossy blankets and stuffing for pillows, duvet, and other products. The Chinese-invested eco-friendly factory will also provide much-needed jobs in a country struggling with growing unemployment.
On a chilly autumn day in Boksburg, a city some 30 km southeast of downtown Johannesburg, the blanket factory, located in the local industrial park, is warm and buzzing with the vibrations of industrial looms and knitting machines.
Thirty-year-old Pretty Zulu stands by the loom watching attentively as the yarn on overhead spinning cones travels rapidly to the knitting machines. Periodically, she picks up a broken yarn and reconnects it swiftly with practiced ease.
Recruited by the privately owned Yi Li Da SA Manufacturing Co., Zulu is among the first batch of skilled workers at the factory.
Job opportunities
“I like this job very much,” Zulu said. Before she found work at the factory she made a living as a street snack vendor.
“This is my first job and I earn much more than [I did] selling food on [the] street. Also, I have learned a lot from this job,” she told ChinAfrica.
With the opening of the blanket factory last December, more than 200 local people like Zulu have been recruited. After some training in knitting, weaving, polishing, printing, sewing and other blanket manufacturing skills, many of them have become skilled workers.
The factory currently has 267 workers, of whom 246 are South African, accounting for approximately 90 percent of the total, according to factory director Leon Shen, who heads up human resources and sales-related business.
“Only local South Africans will be employed in the factory. This is the principle we have been adhering to,” Shen said. He explained that the local workers are more stable and facilitate the enterprise’s integration into the local culture and society.
Newly recruited employees receive training before they are put to work independently. In Nan-tong, a city with a well-developed textile industry in east China’s Jiangsu Province and home to Yi Li Da investors, a skilled worker can oversee up to 10 knitting machines or looms. Employees in the newly set-up South African factory can take care of four or five after training though for some of the proficient ones it could go up to six.
Shen said the factory will need more workers later in the year when the business is expanded. At present, it focuses on knitting, weaving and printing, using fiber imported from China. But with the introduction of fiber-processing machines and technology from China, the bottles will be processed for fiber at an adjoining plant, which is where the extra staff will be needed.
Green manufacturing
Yi Li Da invested in a recycling plant in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2007. At this plant, bottles are recycled into short polyester fibers to produce stuffing for pillows, duvets and cushions as well as shopping bags. But knitting and weaving blankets at the Yi Li Da factory requires long polyester fibers.
The green production process starts with the collection of plastic bottles, which are first pressed and then transported to recycling plants.
After a dozen processing procedures, such as steaming, washing and polishing, the white plastic fibers become fluffy, soft and glossy blankets with colorful patterns. Today’s trash becomes tomorrow’s textiles.
According to Qian Yong, chairman and one of the investors of Yi Li Da, the blanket manufacturing project, with a total investment of $20 million, has two phases. The first phase is the blanket weaving and manufacturing. In the second phase, they will set up an adjoining plant to recycle plastic bottles into polyester yarn, producing the long fibers required for weaving blankets.
With the implementation of the second phase of the project, more jobs will be created for local people, production costs will be reduced, and the production process will emit less carbon dioxide.
The waste water in the factory is collected, treated and recycled in sewage treatment pools installed outside the workshops to ensure its impact on the environment is minimized.
Mutually beneficial
Launched on December 11, 2015, the blanket factory in Boksburg will create approximately 1,000 direct jobs and significant indirect employment opportunities, according to South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The unemployment rate in South Africa has averaged 25.29 percent since 2000, according to Statistics South Africa. To help reduce this figure, the government is encouraging the development of the local manufacturing sector.
The DTI cited Chinese companies as an example of those leading the way in Africa in manufacturing and expanding localization.
Opening the factory in South Africa enables Yi Li Da to produce better and more profitable products. Compared with imported products, locally manufactured blankets are softer and sell at a better price.
Due to the recent depreciation of the South African rand, manufacturing costs are also reduced.
Challenges
“Yi Li Da is getting on track,” Qian said. “Our daily output is now 10 tons and we can supply regular customers. With the increase of basic production volume, we will start to manufacture blankets [for] a higher-end market.”
Despite the progress, Yi Li Da also faces challenges. The management feels pressured due to its unfamiliarity with local laws, culture and customs. Knowing these is very important for a multinational company.
“Some of our workers had never worked in a factory before,” Qian said. “They came one day and were absent the next, so we have had to train them.”
Chinese investors have to also learn to deal with labor and capital issues, which different from the situation in China, Qian added. CA
Producing fluffy blankets from trashed plastic water bottles