Nzambi Matee displays a Gjenge paver. Inthe background is plastic waste used to make the pavers. [Photo provided toChina Daily]
When Nzambi Matee left her job toventure into ecopreneurship in 2017, many discouraged her.
Today she is being celebrated not only by her family members andfriends but by the entire continent and the globe, for being the 2020 Africanwinner of the United Nations Environment Program's Young Champions of Earthaward.
The prize is awarded annually to seven entrepreneurs under theage of 30 with bold ideas for sustainable environmental change. It providesseed funding and mentorship to promising environmentalists as they tackle theworld's most pressing challenges.
Matee, who was recognized for her efforts to innovatively solvethe challenge of plastics in Kenya, terms the prize as a recognition of herhard work with her team of nine. She said it has publicized her products andexpects to get more customers.
Matee is the founder of Gjenge Makers, a social enterprise thatrecycles and upcycles plastic waste into construction products, such as pavingbricks, paving tiles, hatch and manhole covers.
In her workshop based in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, the plasticsare turned into the construction materials. Her enterprise churns out 1,500plastic pavers daily.
The cost of the pavers range from $8-$18 per square meter,depending on the size, color and design.
The Gjenge pavers have a melting point of over 350C, making themmuch stronger than their concrete equivalents.
Due to their durability and affordability, the products aregreatly valued by schools and homeowners.
Mukuru Skills Training Center in Nairobi's Mukuru Kayaba slum isone of the schools that uses the pavers. Its playground and the paths betweenclassrooms are covered by colorful paving bricks.
"We plan to pave all around the school. It's a cheapersolution and we are grateful to Nzambi. Young people need to be motivated andsensitized about how to care for the environment, while at the same time makingmoney," Anne Muthoni, the program coordinator in the training center,said.
Matee, who majored in material science and worked as an engineerin Kenya's oil industry, was inspired to launch her business after routinelycoming across plastic bags strewn along Nairobi's streets.
When her immediate family members and friends learned of herdecision to leave a good job and venture into the business, most of them didn'tlike the idea and thought it was a mistake.
However, Matee had made up her mind and her vision was crystalclear. Equipped with passion and determination, she quit her job as a dataanalyst in 2017 and set up a small lab in her mother's back yard. There, shestarted creating and testing pavers, which were a combination of plastic andsand.
Through trial and error, Matee and her team learned that someplastics bind together better than others.
Her project was given a boost when she won a scholarship toattend a social entrepreneurship training program in the US.
With her paver samples packed in her luggage, she used thematerial labs at the University of Colorado-Boulder to further test and refinethe ratios of sand to plastic.
Matee also used this opportunity to develop the machinery shewould use to make the bricks.
Just like any other young business, she started experiencingchallenges immediately in her mother's backyard. Neighbors complained about thenoisy machine she was using.
She pleaded with the neighbors for one year's grace to developthe right ratios for her paving bricks. They agreed.
"I shut down my social life for a year, and put all mysavings into this. My friends were worried," she said.
However, three years down the line, the friends and relativesappreciated her decision because the results were evident.
"The first time we produced a full batch of recycledplastic pavers, it was the best day ever. This was three years of hardwork," she said.
Going forward, Matee looks forward to her enterprise being theleader in alternative building materials. She plans to expand to Nigeria,Uganda and Tanzania.
Matee encourages other young people to tackle environmentalchallenges at the local level. "The negative impact we are having on theenvironment is huge. It's up to us to make this reality better. Start withwhatever local solution you can find and be consistent with it. The resultswill be amazing," she said.
Commenting on her win, Soraya Smaoun, who specializes inindustrial production techniques with the UN program, said, "We mustrethink how we manufacture industrial products and deal with them at the end oftheir useful life."
"Matee's innovation in the construction sector highlightsthe economic and environmental opportunities when we move from a lineareconomy, where products, once used, are discarded, to a circular one, whereproducts and materials continue in the system for as long as possible,"she added.