Like many urban centres in the majority world, Ghana’s streets are filled with litter. Instead of just hiring people to clean the streets, however, a social enterprise called Recycle Not a Waste Initiative (RECNOWA) has come with a solution that also treats a social problem. RECNOWA hires teams of Ghanian street youth to clean up public spaces, offering them fair employment opportunities while also giving them the chance to have a positive impact on the local environment. What’s more, the social business then upcycles some of the waste items—plastics in particular—to create handmade accessories and fashion items. They have also launched the Garbage Bank Initiative, which encourages students to bring recyclable items from home in exchange for points that can be traded for money or educational items like school bags. In addition, students are taught how to upcycle these items into art and functional items. RECNOWA adheres to the principles of Ethical Consumerism, Social Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation, Fair Trade and being Carbon Zero through carbon offsetting. All of these initiatives are explained in further detail on their website.      Trash Treasures Eco-Shoes: Footwear made from old car tyres has been in Ghana for decades. It is popularly known in Ghana as ‘tawoto’ our great grand fathers used indigenous knowledge and creative skills to manufacture this great soles which were mainly use to go to the farms. Recycle Not a Waste is now harnessing the artisan skills and the indigenous age old knowledge and tradition handed over to us by our forefathers in recycling tyres and fused it with innovations and creativity to manufacture good looking soles such as flip flops, loafers, boat shoes, converse style trainers etc for both the local and international export markets. Recycle Not a Waste is committed to rescuing some of the hundreds of thousands of tires that end up in the landfills, lakes and rivers in Ghana which takes years to decompose and recycle them into comfortable footwear that has universal appeal whiles creating employment opportunities and utilizing the artisan skills of indigenous Ghanaian shoemakers and channeling them into a grassroots fair trade social enterprise that provide a fair wage that not only aid survival but allow them to considerably improve their standard of living.