Hands of Honour Up-cycling Centre will employs the ‘unemployable’ in South Africa - those who have experienced homelessness, crime and / or substance abuse - to up-cycle obsolete stock and recyclable items. Much of this waste is provided through partnerships with the corporate sector and would otherwise end up in landfills. Workers process the waste, either rehabilitating material or stripping goods for sale of parts.Corporations are our main partners.''donating '' their corporate waste rather than send on to landfill.

Proceeds from this has two benefits:
(1)Provide salaries for workers who otherwise have no work options available to them;
(2)Profits are invested in derelict community spaces, focusing on public spaces which have become havens for anti-social behaviour.
Hands of Honour brings together three best-practices:

(1)While ‘up-cycling’ or reusing waste materials has been done informally by waste pickers scouring the dumps, the organisation works directly with the waste generators to formalise this process, representing something new in South Africa. Corporations are the main ‘donors’ of waste to the organisation, donating rather than disposing of their waste;
(2)Hands of Honour’s Job Training Programme provides skills and confidence to those members of society who have ‘checked out’. This both increases employment and rehabilitates the workers;
(3)This process funds urban renewal initiatives, focusing on those areas that are identified by the community as being flash points for crime.

Taken together, these elements result in a programme that can sustain itself and contribute to a greener city, job creation and reclaiming derelict urban spaces