visited a company previously supported by Finland, where children scavenged waste in the yard. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was not child labor.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland has completed its investigation into the alleged use of child labor in a Zambian company that Finland has supported financially.
The investigation was started after visited the Plastpave Zambia company in February and reported that women and children were scavenging waste in the company’s yard and were paid for the cookies they found for their work.
The company visit was part of a trip organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Finnish journalists, where development cooperation and related projects were presented to the media.
In connection with the news, it was said that the CEO of the company Lwenga Mulela did not consider using children as labor because they were not paid.
Based on the report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is indisputable that waste is processed in the company’s yard and that women and children have also been dumped with this waste.
However, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these persons are not official employees of the company, of which there are only three. The ministry bases its views on the on-site interviews conducted by representatives of the Finnish delegation and the ministry responsible for business operations in Zambia.
Make useable items from cookie boxes
Plastpave Zambia, which recycles plastic, uses visually defective biscuit packages as material, which include edible biscuits.
The entrepreneur told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that he thought it was better to let the cookies be eaten than to burn them. He specified that women come to the yard with their children when they see the new bags of cookies are there.
In ‘s article, it was stated that the company’s employees worked without protective equipment suitable for handling waste. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the entrepreneur has now added an obligation to use protective equipment to the employment contract.
Plastpave Zambia, which received approximately 30,000 euros worth of investment support from Finland in 2023, recycles waste and makes, for example, furniture and fence posts from packaging plastics.