The world has its share of problems: War, hunger, a climate crisis, homelessness, all on top of a global pandemic. While the issues stack up across the globe, innovative people endeavor to come up with solutions. The best solutions will always address multiple problems simultaneously, and some of those creative solutions can come from the most unlikely places.
In the country of Kenya, a young innovator named Nzambi Matee has found notoriety for coming up with a solution for both the plastic crisis facing her home country and the homelessness that has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. She has found a way to build homes for the homeless population in Kenya, using none other than plastic waste.
Plastic Waste in Kenya
While plastic waste is piling up worldwide, Africa has found itself bearing the brunt of the burden. Resource-rich areas of the world can break the trash down into small pieces, taking up very little space. However, Kenya has implemented plastic bans without the capacity to break the waste down and avoid massive piles of plastic beginning to build.
Plastic ban policies typically have socioeconomic and environmental consequences. Throughout the state, large piles of waste have built up due to excessive plastic use, such as the infamous Dandora dump in Nairobi. Many at the lower end of the disparity are also disproportionately affected by policing under these laws as plastic bag distribution, manufacturing, and usage are subject to a fine and/or prison sentence. Additionally, some businesses will generally relocate to other states to avoid strict laws, damaging economic interests and employment numbers.
Homelessness in Kenya
Because of the unemployment numbers and severe land shortages caused by corporate groups and businesses buying up large areas, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans are forced into slums, and the price of land has skyrocketed. More people have been forced from their homes, 7,000 of them evicted in the last year. This increasing homeless population also causes violence and crime as, those who are able, steal what they need to survive. It has also caused a spike in HIV/AIDS as the lack of proper medical care is available.
While Habitat for Humanity is one of 250 organizations in Kenya looking to help combat homelessness, government intervention is needed to make more profound progress. The consistent evictions and land restrictions increase the homeless population faster than these organizations can combat it. With the price of building materials, it is getting more and more difficult.
Nzambi Matee
One million plastic bottles are bought every minute worldwide; most of those bottles end up in landfills, oceans, or other natural spaces. Nzambi Matee, a 29-year-old entrepreneur from Nairobi, is combating this global crisis by recycling bags, containers, and other waste products into bricks used for patios and other construction projects.
Before launching her company, Gjenge Makers, Matee worked as a data analyst and oil industry engineer. After encountering plastic waste along Nairobi’s streets, she decided to quit her job and created a small lab in her mother’s backyard, testing sand and plastic combinations. Matee eventually received a scholarship to study in the materials lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. She ultimately developed a prototype for the machine that now produces the textured bricks.
Made from a combination of plastic and sand, the pavers have a melting point higher than 350°C and are more durable than their concrete counterparts. Matee and her team source much of the raw product from factories and recyclers, and sometimes it’s free, which allows the company to reduce the price point on the development and make it affordable for schools and homeowners. So far, Gjenge Makers has recycled more than 20 tons of plastic and created 112 job opportunities in the community.
“It is absurd that we still have this problem of providing decent shelter–a basic human need,” Matee said in a statement. “Plastic is a material that is misused and misunderstood. The potential is enormous, but its afterlife can be disastrous.”
Gjenge Makers
Kenya took a slow-moving approach in curtailing the plastics crisis when Matee decided to take matters into her own hands. She used her ingenuity to make a change herself, to find a solution to multiple problems simultaneously. Her products are now a core economic ingredient toward upturning poverty and improving infrastructure at the community level.
Gjenge Makers addresses both the plastic waste and housing crisis through its plastic brick solution. Following its Build Alternatively, Build Affordably model, it seeks to contribute a critical product that could empower individual communities by giving them the resources needed to rise out of poverty. Matee builds shelters to combat homelessness but has also made it her personal mission to end poverty once and for all in her country.
Gjenge Makers and Nzambu Matee especially are champions of economic empowerment in battling the crisis that continues to expand across the continent of Africa. Though the startup is currently based in Nairobi, it eventually seeks to develop and support other African states.