Marlene Mostert

She’s still a young student herself, but Marlene has already developed a fully-fledged plan — including the blueprint for an app, a website, in-depth research, a four-stage plan — for how students in South Africa can help cut plastic waste, while supporting other schools with vital equipment. She calls it the Meanoia Project. Participating schools actively collect plastic that would otherwise harm the environment. By doing so, they become part of the project's journey to transform the collected material into desks, chairs and other resources for other schools, who may be lacking it. It’s all based on a credit system and friendly competition. From 30 nearby schools, the ambitious changemaker wants to expand to the Cape Town region, ultimately covering all national coastal regions. Along the way, she hopes to inspire students and schools about environmental matters way beyond their textbooks.