{"id":5789,"date":"2022-01-06T23:09:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T04:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illuzone.net\/?p=5789"},"modified":"2022-03-09T19:34:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T00:34:06","slug":"kenyan-woman-turns-plastic-waste-into-bricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illuzone.net\/kenyan-woman-turns-plastic-waste-into-bricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan Woman Turns Plastic Waste into Bricks that are Stronger than Concrete!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes \u2013 That\u2019s the amount of plastic that has been estimated to enter the ocean from rivers each year! More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water, which results in it not sinking when it reaches the sea. The more buoyant and tougher plastics are more resilient and as such, are transported over longer distances. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a colossal accumulation of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean, situated between Hawaii and California and covering twice as much surface area as the state of Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenya is one of many countries contributing to the pollution, with hundreds of tons of plastic waste generated every day in the capital, Nairobi, alone. The Dandora landfill, located on the outskirts of the city, extends over an area of about 30 acres or an equivalent of 22 football fields. Despite having attained its capacity and meant to have been shut down some 20 years ago, the site is still operating. Every day, waste pickers are seen plowing through the putrid trash in the landfill, rummaging through the heaps of garbage for plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dandora
Dandora Landfill, situated on the outskirts of Nairobi, is the city’s main dumping ground.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Plastic
Plastic sorting at Dandora landfill.
Source: <\/em>Edward Burtynsky<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nzambi Matee, a 29-year-old Nairobi-based woman entrepreneur and inventor, is the founder of a startup company called Gjenge Makers that transforms plastic waste into sustainable, lightweight and low-cost building materials including paving tiles, manhole covers, and paving blocks that are stronger than concrete material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nzambi
Nzambi Matee, founder of the startup company, Gjenge Makers.
Source: africanewsUNEP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A research assisted by the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) discovered that more than 50% of cattle near urban areas in Kenya had plastic in their stomachs. With tons of plastic clogging drains, polluting rivers, contaminating animal feed in the region, and some ending up at Dandora landfill, the Kenyan government prohibited the use of plastic bags in 2017. Afterwards, all single-use plastic were also banned in protected natural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these bans only concerned the issue of consumer single-use plastic while commercial waste remains a persistent problem within the country. As a result, Kenya is still submerged in this never-ending plastic problem, despite all these measures implemented. One river was so choked with plastic that one could actually walk on water since it had formed an unsinkable base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A river in Nairobi, Kenya, clogged with plastic and other garbage.
Source: CBS\/Debora Patta<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A river strewn with garbage in Nairobi.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This indeed is an alarming health hazard for everyone living in the area, except for Nzambi Matee. In fact, she is thrilled at the sight of waste because she knows it means life for her and her team. As plastic does not sink, this is what captivated Matee\u2019s attention. “I came across this concept of using plastic to [make] building blocks,” she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fed up of standing on the sidelines and watching the plastic pollution invading the urban areas, Matee decided to take matters into her own hands. In 2017, she quit her job of a data analyst and organized a small laboratory in her mother\u2019s backyard to start creating and testing pavers, which are a combination of plastic and sand. Being a trained materials engineer and schooled in biochemistry, the young woman developed innovative ways of converting plastic waste into sustainable materials. Before that, Matee had also worked as an engineer in Kenya\u2019s oil industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Plastic
Plastic waste turned into bricks.
Source: Gjenge Makers Ltd.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Due to her ingenuity, Matee was named a Young Champion of the Earth 2020 Africa winner at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award “provides seed funding and mentorship to promising environmentalists as they tackle the world’s most pressing challenges.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur product is almost five to seven times stronger than concrete. There is that waste they cannot process anymore; they cannot recycle. That is what we get,\u201d Matee states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nzambi
Nzambi Matee holding the bricks made from plastic waste.
Source: Gjenge Makers Ltd.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"recycle
Source: Gjenge Makers Ltd.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The young entrepreneur obtains the waste material for free from packaging factories, but she also buys it from other recyclers. Gjenge Makers only uses plastic that cannot be further recycled or was never recyclable in the first place, such as cereal and sandwich bags, shampoo and milk bottles, flip-top lids, ropes, and buckets. As Nzambi Matee mentions, \u201cEssentially companies have to pay to dispose of their waste, so we solved their problem\u2026by taking in off their hands for free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These types of plastic waste include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n