Afri-Plastics Challenge, an initiative launched by Challenge Works, a UK-based nonprofit organisation, and funded by the government of Canada, recently rewarded African innovators £4.1 millionfor their scalable ideas aimed at addressing plastic waste in Africa and lowering the amount of pollution reaching the ocean.
The challenge aims to find innovative solutions to the plastic waste problem in Africa and promote sustainable practices in the region.
Togo’s Green Industry Plast (GIP-TOGO), a recycling company that facilitates waste plastic collection and provides a source of income to households received a grant of £1 million. The plastic collected is sorted, shredded, cleaned, and packaged for reuse, including as eco-friendly paving slabs.
Chemolex, a Kenyan company, has been awarded £750,000 to expand the production of Biopactic, a biodegradable substitute for plastic made from water hyacinths that are invasive and fast-growing in Lake Victoria. The next-generation material can entirely replace disposable plastic in product and food packaging, effectively reducing plastic waste and addressing the impact of an invasive plant on Kenya’s marine ecosystem.
Mega Gas, another Kenyan company that transforms waste plastic into affordable cooking gas for households with a daily income of less than $1, also received £500,000. The company employs a thermal cracking method that generates no pollution, residue or emissions to convert plastic waste, such as polythene, into fuel for rural families.
According to Tris Dyson, the Managing Director of Challenge Works, the ocean receives 11 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, which poses a significant threat to the environment and the communities that rely on the ocean. The winners of the Afri-Plastics Challenge, however, are leading the way in finding African solutions to this global problem.
More than £4 million has been awarded to innovative businesses through the Afri-Plastics Challenge, with some already doubling the recycling rates while providing additional income for households. Some companies are transforming invasive plants from Lake Victoria into biodegradable materials, while others are producing affordable cooking gas from waste plastic.
Christopher Thornley, Canada’s High Commissioner in Nairobi, acknowledged that plastic pollution affects everyone, regardless of where it originated. The Afri-Plastics Challenge winners demonstrate that it is possible to establish a circular economy for plastic waste, with groundbreaking solutions that can change the way we consume and dispose of plastic, not only in Africa but across the globe.
In July 2021, the Afri-Plastics Challenge was launched, and it received 1,141 submissions from innovators located throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The 40 most promising teams were provided with an additional £4.8 million in seed funding, grants, and support to create solutions that would raise plastic recycling rates, reduce plastic waste volumes, and drive behavior change. Today’s announcement showcased the successful innovations developed through the challenge, which could revolutionize Africa’s approach to minimizing its dependence on plastic.
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These innovations are also creating economic opportunities for women and supporting their empowerment, with women-led submissions accounting for 60% of the finalists.
Additional Afri-Plastics Challenge winners include:
• ChanjaDatti (Nigeria) – awarded £750,000 – based in Abuja, the company converts collected recyclable waste into commercially viable products. It collects, sorts, and bales plastic, selling it to manufacturers.
• EcoCoCo Homecare (Kenya) – awarded £250,000 – the company has developed alternatives to plastic homeware products using fibres from coconut husks left over from coconut oil production. These include scouring pads, scrubbing brushes, and brooms.
• Toto Safi (Rwanda) – awarded £100,000 – a diaper-on-demand service that makes sustainable cloth diapers an affordable alternative to single-use plastic-based nappies. Parents can order clean and sterilized nappies through its app, and used nappies are taken away to be cleaned.
• Catharina Natang (Cameroon) – awarded £250,000 – trains fashion designers in Africa to make sustainable choices in the textiles they use and understand plant-based alternatives to polymer-based materials.
• Ukwenza VR (Kenya) – awarded £250,000 – uses virtual reality to explain the journey of a piece of plastic after it is dumped, including the damage it does to local environments, to encourage people to make different choices around plastic consumption and disposal.
• Baus Taka Enterprise (Kenya) – awarded £250,000 – developed a mobile app that encourages people to segregate their plastic waste. Through competitions, it offers cash rewards and points that can be redeemed for medical services in partnership with health clinics.
Challenge Works, an expert in UK innovation prizes, and the Government of Canada designed and implemented the Afri-Plastics Challenge. It is part of the Marine Litter Mitigation Fund, a $100 million initiative announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Charlevoix in June 2018.
During the competition, recycling-focused innovators reported a 113% increase in monthly collection and processing. In the long run, the solutions developed and scaled by the innovators will establish sustainable local enterprises, provide alternatives to single-use plastics, and enhance waste collection and processing.
