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.

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Edited transcript of the interview

Linda van Tilburg (00:00.492)

South Africa produces more than 125 million tonnes of waste each year, yet only a fraction is recycled. Plastic pollution is choking rivers, poisoning oceans and infiltrating our food chains – a crisis that continues to grow. But in Paarl in the Western Cape, one company is turning this challenge into opportunity. Lily Loompa, founded by Lizl Naudé, is transforming discarded plastic and other waste materials into homeware. Today Lizl joins us in the studio. Hi Lizl, how are you?

Lizl Naudé (00:18)

Hi Linda, I’m great, thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Linda van Tilburg

So what motivated you to start Lily Loompa?

Lizl Naudé (00:30)

It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short. My family and I lost everything a few times. There was a period of about 10 to 12 years where we literally had no income, no opportunities – we were struggling. We lost properties, cars, everything – all our material possessions. We were young entrepreneurs, bright-eyed, made some rookie mistakes, and it snowballed into a bigger financial struggle. Through all of this we moved around a lot. We’ve been married 23 years and have moved more than 44 times as a couple. So we constantly found ourselves in new spaces. As a creative, and as a mother and wife, I had to think creatively about how to make each place feel like home as quickly as possible. That’s when my upcycling brain started working – always looking for materials I could reuse, whether it was a dining-room table or art for the walls. The seed was planted very informally. At the time we were living in Johannesburg. Around 2014–2015 I started seeing it as a possible business concept. We began trading in 2016, moved back to Cape Town at the end of that year, and in 2017 I launched a new range designed especially for tourists – souvenirs and the like. We officially registered the business in 2018.

Linda van Tilburg (02:10)

And how is the business going now? Have you received any external funding?

Lizl Naudé (02:15)

It’s going well – since 2018 quite a lot has happened. Upcycling is still a fairly new concept in South Africa, so we’ve been at the forefront, pioneering the industry and paving the way. That comes with challenges – a lot of education is required to convince people of the value of waste. That’s why it’s so important to us to design beautiful, functional items people can use in their homes, so they immediately see the value. Since 2018 we’ve set up our own facility, we employ four people, and we have a growing list of excellent clients. More and more corporates and retailers are buying into the concept. Having products like ours in their offering positions them as responsible businesses – whether it’s corporate gifting or stock on their shelves. Each year the trajectory is upward. Legislation is also pushing companies to take waste management seriously, and instead of sending everything back to landfill – where only 9–11% of plastic is actually recycled – we intercept that waste and keep it in the circular economy.

Linda van Tilburg (04:50)

Give us some examples of what materials you use and what you create from them.

Lizl Naudé (05:00)

I seem to have a gift: the moment I see a material, my mind starts seeing possibilities. Of course, it’s not as simple as having an idea today and a product on the shelf tomorrow – there’s a lot of experimentation and R&D. Everything is new; no one in South Africa was doing it before, so we’ve had to figure it out ourselves. Plastic is the big one for us now. For years we couldn’t work with it because we didn’t understand the nuances and had no access to equipment. I actually started experimenting with plastic in my kitchen during lockdown. Today we have a full plastic range. 

We collect it from clients, from the streets, from landfills, or the community brings it to us – people love donating their waste because they want to do the right thing. Being in the Cape Winelands, naturally there are lots of wine bottles, so we have a wine-bottle range too. We work with wood off-cuts, and our very first product – still a favourite – is the Tuna Can: a recycled tuna tin with a handmade lid that becomes a desk tidy or jewellery holder, perfect for tourists. We also do custom work – trophies, awards… Recently we made trophies for Stellenbosch University in their exact maroon and gold colours, using HDPE milk bottles. That’s the ideal scenario: a client comes to us with their brand colours and event brief, and we collaborate.

Linda van Tilburg (08:00)

And on the funding side – any external support?

Lizl Naudé (08:10)

There are programmes available, and we’ve been fortunate. This year we’ve done two international trips supported by local government agencies – Atlanta in September/October, and then three weeks in Germany. But ultimately the responsibility still rests on my husband and me. He works on the business (strategy), I work in the business (creative and production). Since he joined full-time things have improved significantly.

Linda van Tilburg (09:40)

Where do you sell your products?

Lizl Naudé (09:45)

Primarily corporate gifting and B2B, but retail outlets include Table Mountain, Two Oceans Aquarium, the V&A Waterfront (Balder’s Beach shop and Exclusive Books), and a few stores in Stellenbosch. In the new year we plan to expand our retail footprint. We have an online store, but over the past two years we’ve pivoted mainly toward B2B while still serving loyal direct customers.

Linda van Tilburg (11:30)

What feedback do you get from customers?

Lizl Naudé (11:35)

Very positive, especially when the product becomes part of daily life. Our MyAfrica Lap Desk, designed in lockdown 2020, is a firm favourite – families end up needing several because everyone wants one for homework or art. The tabletop range – platters, salt-and-pepper sets, carafes – are conversation starters at dinner tables, which is exactly what we want: people talking about the value of waste.

Linda van Tilburg (13:50)

I’m definitely buying one of those lap desks.

Lizl Naudé

I can hand-deliver it.

Linda van Tilburg (14:00)

So where does the name Lily Loompa come from?

Lizl Naudé (14:05)

Very personal. After school I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I always knew I was creative. Five months after getting married I fell downstairs and nearly broke my back – bedridden for six weeks. Bored out of my mind, I started making jewellery in bed. Colleagues loved it, orders rolled in, and a side business was born. A friend challenged me to find a proper name. On a work trip to Kakamas, during a thunderstorm, I wrote down everything important to me from childhood: my nickname was Lily, and I loved the Oompa-Loompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I wrote “Loompa Lily”, swapped it to “Lily Loompa”, and at that exact moment lightning struck. I knew that was it. Lily is still my alter ego, and the name fits the playful, creative spirit of the company.

Linda van Tilburg (18:30)

Where do you see the business in the future?

Lizl Naudé (18:35)

We have big plans. Above all, we want to create meaningful impact – jobs in our community and products that travel the world. We’ve launched Project 99: by 2030, or sooner, we aim to employ 99 people. Everything we do now aligns with that goal. We’ve spent years building credibility and educating the market. We’re proud to be pioneers in South Africa, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly.