From trash to tabletop: Lily Loompa is leading recycling in South Africa – Lizle Naudé

South Africa lags far behind the world’s leading recycling nations, with plastic littering our rivers and oceans. In the heart of the Western Cape Winelands, however, Lizl Naudé is quietly changing the narrative. Her Paarl-based company, Lily Loompa, collects discarded milk bottles, wine bottles and street plastic and transforms them into stylish platters, lap desks, trophies and gifts that people genuinely want in their homes.Naudé recently hopped on the Berlin metro to personally deliver one of her best-selling MyAfrica lap desks to a delighted customer in Germany. In an exclusive BizNews interview, she reveals how she rose from rock-bottom – after years of financial hardship and more than 44 house moves in 23 years of marriage to build a trailblazing upcycling business that has earned her a place among the winners of the prestigious Irish Tech Challenge.