A backyard lab that turns Nairobi's plastic into paving stones
Kenyan engineer Nzambi Matee left her job, set up a lab in her mother's back yard and developed paving blocks made from waste plastic mixed with sand.
One problem. Many solutions.
Plastic waste
What do you do with plastic when nobody collects it?
Different communities face the same problem and find different answers, shaped by their own resources, knowledge and context. No approach here is presented as the right one for everywhere.
Side by side
| Who | Where | How it started | Scale | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nzambi Matee (Gjenge Makers) | Nairobi, Kenya | In 2017 Matee left her job and set up a small laboratory in her mother's back yard in Nairobi to experiment with mixing waste plastic and sand. | City | Documented |
| Isatou Ceesay and the women of N'jau | N'jau, Central River Region, The Gambia | Ceesay called a meeting in N'jau to talk about recycling plastic, and only five women came. With them she began washing discarded plastic bags, cutting them into strips and crocheting them into small purses. | Community | Documented |
| Melati and Isabel Wijsen | Bali, Indonesia | After a school lesson about change-makers such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, the young sisters decided to start a campaign against plastic bags on their island. | Regional | Documented |
The women of N'jau who turned plastic bags into purses
In a Gambian village with no rubbish collection, Isatou Ceesay and a handful of women began crocheting discarded plastic bags into purses to sell, creating income and cleaner streets.
Two schoolgirls ask Bali to say goodbye to plastic bags
Sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen started Bye Bye Plastic Bags in Bali in 2013, campaigning with petitions and clean-ups until the province restricted single-use plastic.
What can they learn from one another? Read the "Copy this" section of each story to compare materials, costs and risks.