Challenge Works and the Government of Canada has announced the prize winners of the Afri-Plastics Challenge with £4million (CA$6.7 million) won by inventors with expandable inventions that tackle plastic waste in Africa and mitigate the amount of pollution finding its way to the ocean.
£1 million has been won to Togo’s Green Industry Plast (GIP-TOGO) – a recycling company that helps individuals make a living through garbage plastic collection. GIP-TOGO then classifies, cuts up, preens and packages the cut-up plastic waste to be used again, including in green paving slabs.
Kenya’s Chemolex has won £750,000 to handle manufacture of Biopactic, a disposable option to plastic made from intrusive water hyacinths that mature aggressively in Lake Victoria. The coming age resources can totally substitute single use plastic in food and product packaging – not only lessening plastic pollution but tackling an interfering plant affecting Kenya’s ocean environs too.
£500,000 has been won by Mega Gas in Kenya which recycles waste plastic into an affordable cooking gas for people living on less than $1 a day. It uses a thermic cracking procedure that produces no emissions, remains or decay to turn plastic pollution, such as polythene, into a fuel for rural families.
Nigeria’s Chanja Datti, a company based in Abuja that converts collected recyclable waste into commercially viable products was awarded £750,000. The company collects, sorts and bails plastic before selling it on to manufacturers.
Tris Dyson, Managing Director, Challenge Works, said: “11 million tonnes of plastic garbage enter the ocean every year. It is a tragedy for the climate and for neighborhoods that depend on wholesome seas. The winners of the Afri-Plastics Challenge are putting African invention at the center of resolving this international issue.
“We are rewarding more than £4 million to companies that are already doubling recycling prices appreciations to the Afri-Plastics Challenge while delivering new sources of revenue for families.”
Christopher Thornley, Canada’s High Commissioner in Nairobi, spoke: “Plastic corrosion is an subject that concerns everybody. Plastics that make their way into the maritime environment are just as harming whether they originated in Mombasa or Montreal, Lagos or London. The prizewinners of the Afri-Plastics Challenge show there is a way ahead for launching a prosperous annular economy for plastic waste, with inventions adept of modifying how we all utilize and throw away plastic – not only in Africa but around the world.”
Founded in July 2021, the Afri-Plastics Challenge accepted 1,141 admissions from developers across sub-Saharan Africa. The 40 most auspicious groups were supported with an additional £4.8 million of seed funding, assistance and sponsorship to create solutions to improve plastic recycling prices.
The thriving inventions created through the Afri-Plastics Challenge have prepare the way to transform Africa’s technique to lower the dependence on plastic. They are also assisting the empowerment of women and girls by devising economic chances for women. Sixty percent of entries that made it to the final 40 were women-headed.
