Meet the Kenyan woman turning plastics into bricks

euronews (in English)

"After taking that plastic waste, you can make roads. And if a kid can go to school and arrive on time through the roads I build, I'm happy."

Transcript

00:00 Plastic waste is everywhere. It's not a Kenya problem, it's a worldwide problem.

00:04 Every week we recycle about 10 to 25 metric tons of plastic waste.

00:08 After taking that plastic waste, we are able to make roads.

00:12 And if a kid can go to school and arrive on time through the roads that I build, I'm happy.

00:17 I think this is my purpose in life.

00:19 I want to live a life where I am living for a cause, not just for me.

00:23 My true love is environmental justice, and my tool of trade is science and engineering.

00:28 My name is Nzambi Mache, and I turn plastic into bricks.

00:32 We live in a very consumer-oriented world.

00:56 We're just about consumption and consumption and consumption.

00:59 We need to stop and realize what are the effects and the byproducts of our consumptious lifestyle.

01:06 The problem of plastic is it takes long to disintegrate,

01:13 so therefore you're able to have the trash for generations and generations piling up.

01:18 The situation for Dzidzenge was out of necessity,

01:22 and as they say, necessity is the mother of all inventions.

01:26 Using my background in materials science and engineering,

01:29 I was like, how can we figure out a way where we can convert this plastic into something else?

01:34 We decided let's enter into building space, because building space is basic human need.

01:40 And what is more basic need than housing shelter?

01:43 So that's how we ended up converting plastic into building blocks.

01:51 Plastic is a very important resource because it has been able to impact every sector,

01:56 from logistics to consumer goods and services.

02:00 We thought of this amazing material, we didn't think of the repercussions.

02:05 We didn't think about the afterlife of especially single-use plastic.

02:09 Plastic waste comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes.

02:12 You can recycle plastic two ways.

02:14 You can either mechanically recycle it, like what we do here, or chemically recycle it.

02:19 For example, plastic to oil.

02:21 Being from a developing country, the element of economics plays a huge role.

02:28 So therefore, mechanically recycling plastic makes it economically viable than chemically recycling.

02:36 We have three segments of the process. We have the pre-processing, the processing, and the post-processing.

02:47 The pre-processing stage starts from collection and sourcing of the plastic waste.

02:51 We do now the pre-processing, which is cleaning, shredding, and sorting, depending on the plastic type.

02:59 In the processing, we mix the plastic, sand, and glass.

03:07 If we need color, that's the stage where we add color.

03:10 Then we go to the hydraulic press, which breaks it and puts it into different shapes and sizes.

03:15 And then it's moved to the cooling bath.

03:18 This is where you reduce the temperatures to room temperature.

03:20 What I admire is the strength of the product. It's also dust-free. It's waterproof.

03:25 When we put the color on the products, it makes a place with food.

03:29 We have the capacity of producing about 3,000 flavors per day, but our demand is about 10,000 per day.

03:35 As a company, our problem is not demand. Our problem is supply.

03:40 We have more demand than we can supply.

03:42 This is one of our products. Let me show you why and how it's stronger than concrete.

03:48 Look.

03:49 Look. It's not broken.

03:56 The challenge is not only production capacity, but also the speed at which we source the materials,

04:02 the speed at which we do the processing, and the speed at which we do the delivery.

04:06 What you've realized is a lot of people want to be sustainable, but they just don't know how.

04:11 When it comes to matters of pollution, when it comes to matters of climate change,

04:15 you've been always seeing a lot of doom and gloom.

04:18 But no one is actually giving us practical ways on how to mitigate this.

04:25 And that's where I believe Djenge comes in.

04:28 Giving you practical and simple ways on how you can be sustainable.

04:33 Sustainability is in our DNA. Sustainability is the core of our business.

04:37 We want to build a sustainable future, brick by brick.

04:41 Unemployment, and especially youth unemployment, is a huge problem in Africa and in Kenya.

04:49 I believe we're making change in our community. We're able to create job opportunities.

04:53 I'm happy to say we have 123 families that are benefiting from this process.

04:59 It's an inspiration because she's in a male-dominated field,

05:04 and she's always determined to get the job done.

05:08 So it's a motivation to everyone who works at the company.

05:12 I want us to be the leaders in alternative building.

05:15 I want us to be the face when it comes to recycling.

05:18 In the future, we want to move into 3D technology.

05:21 The idea is to make different molds, to make different shapes and products.

05:25 We want to automate some processes so that we can increase the production capacity.

05:32 Now that we've figured out the concept, my hope and prayer is we are able to help other people

05:36 who want to make change just like me in their home countries,

05:39 so that they too can solve their plastic problems.

05:42 My hope is when my time in this process is up, I can be able to teach the next generation.

05:48 I want to undo what my ancestors did and chart a path where the future generation can then build on that.

05:56 [Music]

06:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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