Nairobi alone generates approximately 500 metric tonnes of plastic waste every day, with majority of the waste being burned or dumped illegally leaving very little that actually gets recycled. A unique and ingenious way to recycle these large amounts of waste has recently been found by the Kenyan entrepreneur and engineer Nzambi Matee. She founded her start-up Gjenge Makers, a company that recycles plastic waste into slabs that are 5 times stronger than concrete. They mix various kinds of plastic with sand, using the plastic as a binder as they melt the mixture at high temperatures and compress it into slabs.

Since plastic is fibrous in nature it is much stronger than concrete and yet the bricks are almost half the weight of a concrete brick of the same size making these bricks very durable. At a cost of approximately $7.70 per square meter in comparison to $98 per square yard of concrete produced in the U.S. , these plastic pavers are significantly cheaper than the concrete option.  Furthermore, 112 job opportunities for garbage collectors, women and youth groups have been generated by Gjenge Markers.

For this innovation, Gjenge Makers won the Young Champions of the Earth Award by UNEP. With the company being able to make up to 1,500 bricks a day they have recycled 20 metric tons of plastic since 2017 and aims to push the figure up to 50 metric tonnes by the end of the next financial year as their production capacity increases. They sell pavers for both residential and commercial purposes.

Whilst the heavy-duty 60 mm paver is strong enough to be used for parking lots and roads, while the 30 mm light-duty paver can be used for household patios and walkways. Currently they are only manufacturing paving blocks but wish to expand into making building blocks in the near future. Following the plastic bag ban in Kenya in 2017 many Kenyans have become more aware about their use of plastics as well as their disposal and new eco-friendly innovations that help recycle waste have been emerging in the Kenyan market such as that of Gjenge Makers.

On a personal note, I have been recycling the plastic milk carton, plastic yogurt tins and other single use plastic vessels that would have otherwise been discarded by my family and I to plant seedlings and make babies of various trees and plants by cutting the milk bottles in half and poking holes on the base to use them as makeshift pots. I also collect the plastic bottles to use them for drip irrigation in the school I am working with on my tree planting project as explained in more detail in previous reports. Any Styrofoam from packaging that I collect is also reused as a means of aeration when I plant ferns, begonia’s, and other house plants by breaking it down into smaller pieces and mixing it with the soil. Additionally, we have a compost pit in which we dispose our organic waste in which is later used as fertiliser for my plants.  We also have a rainwater collection system at our house to reduce our usage and waste of water.

References

https://www.unep.org/youngchampions/news/story/building-blocks-greener-nairobi

https://www.ecowatch.com/tax-international-travel-2650642997.html

https://www.weforum.org/videos/21477-this-kenyan-entrepreneur-makes-paving-slabs-out-of-plastic-waste

https://www.designboom.com/technology/gjenge-makers-recycled-plastic-bricks-kenya-02-08-2021/ 

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/kenyan-start-recycles-plastic-bottles-bricks-stron/