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£4.1m goes to nine innovative winners on our Afri-Plastics Challenge

16 March 2023

Home » News » £4.1m goes to nine innovative winners on our Afri-Plastics Challenge

Alongside the Government of Canada, the Afri-Plastics Challenge, delivered by us here at Challenge Works, has awarded £4.1 million (CA$6.7 million) to nine innovator teams from sub-Saharan Africa with scalable innovations that tackle plastic waste and reduce the volume of pollution that ends up in the ocean.

Launched in July 2021, the Challenge received 1,141 entries from innovators across sub-Saharan Africa. The 40 most promising teams were backed with an additional £4.8 million of seed funding, grants and support to develop solutions to increase plastic recycling rates, reduce volumes of plastic waste, and influence behaviour change ahead of today’s announcement.

After months of preparation, the Afri-Plastics Challenge team, competing innovators and field experts met in Nairobi at the Afri-Plastics Summit and Awards to exchange ideas, pitch their products and network, awaiting the final awards ceremony for the grand prizes. 40 teams from three different strands of the prize were finalists with initiatives that have brought communities together, creating new opportunities for business, reducing plastic waste and empowering women and girls to get involved. 60% of entries that made it to the final 40 were women-led.

These successful innovations have paved the way to revolutionise Africa’s approach to reducing the reliance on plastic.

Below you will find short inspirational videos describing each strand of the prize, and below that, a description of the ingenious winning teams and their ideas.

Strand 1 – Accelerating Growth

This documentary is the story of the challenge’s Strand 1 innovators who focused on scaling their existing solutions in plastic waste management.

And the winners of Strand 1 are:

Green Industry Plast – Togo (Lomé, Togo)

Awarded £1 million

The GIP-Togo solution consists of setting up collection units and sorting facilities for plastic waste in Togo’s major cities, in collaboration with the local authorities. The purpose of this is to collect and recover plastic waste for recycling purposes.

“We want to equip every stakeholder in the city’s living environment – from City Hall to private citizens – with the tools to recycle to improve public health and living conditions.”

Chanja Datti (Abuja, Nigeria)

Awarded £750,000

Chanja Datti’s solution is a technology driven in-house end-to-end process for plastics waste recycling by purchasing directly from our waste aggregators and waste pickers, who are some of society’s most marginalized people.

“Our aim is to establish a series of recycling hubs across northern Nigeria, building on our success in Abuja. The collected plastics will be processed and sold as post-consumer recycled plastics to plastics manufacturers for use by large bottle-to-bottle manufacturing companies.”

Mega Gas (Nairobi, Kenya)

Awarded £500,000

MegaGas converts unsorted plastic waste into clean and affordable cooking gas through a patented process. The company’s main objective is to convert unsorted waste polythene/plastics that litter the environment into clean gaseous fuel.

“We use a patented thermal cracking process that converts plastic waste into a gas which is harvested, compressed into cylinders, and sold at affordable prices.”

Strand 2 – Creating Solutions

This documentary is the story of the challenge’s Strand 2 innovators who focused on the development of plastic alternatives to encourage the reduction of plastic usage.

And the winners of Strand 2 are:

Chemolex (Nairobi, Kenya)

Awarded £750,000

Chemolex’s solution is a recyclable, reusable and 100% biodegradable material that completely replaces the use of single-use plastic polymers in food and product packaging as well as in manufacturing diapers.

“We currently supply more than 8,000 pieces of biodegradable bread bags and other customised packaging solutions, and have also developed biodegradable diapers and sanitary pads which are currently available in the Kenyan market.”

EcoCoCo Homecare (Kilifi, Kenya)

Awarded £250,000

EcoCoCo Homecare is spearheading the development of EcoCoco, a range of multi-purpose everyday home care products (scouring pads scrubbing brushes and brooms) made from compostable natural coconut fibre.

“We are pioneering the plastic-free movement with a range of biodegradable coconut fibre products for daily use in homecare. These include dish scrubbers, brooms and brushes that are 100% plastic free and fully compostable.”

Toto Safi (Kigali, Rwanda)

Awarded £100,000

Toto Safi’s solution is a reusable cloth diapers service so that parents do not have to choose between convenience and pollution. Through this app, parents will be able to receive a fresh bundle of sterilised and affordable cloth diapers.

“We are a reusable cloth diaper service. It is a viable alternative for many parents who cannot afford disposable diapers, while also preventing a major source of land and marine pollution. Parents can order a package of reusable cloth diapers and accessories produced by local women tailors, access an affordable community-based, women-operated diaper laundry service and a wealth of trusted diapering and baby tips.”

Strand 3 – Promoting Change

This documentary is the story of the challenge’s Strand 3 innovators who focused on using advocacy campaigns to drive behavioural change around plastic in communities

And the winners of Strand 3 are…

Catharina Natang (Buea, Cameroon)

Awarded £250,000

Catharina Natang’s solution aims to provide training to fashion designers on sustainable fashion and resource mobilisation and equip local designers to understand the subtle but massive presence of plastic-based fabrics in the fashion industry.

“Our ‘Addressing Plastics in Fashion Design’ program uses a training-empowerment-promotion model, and targets designers and aspiring designers, fashion schools, and laundromats. Participants receive training on how this contributes to the global challenge of plastic waste, guidance on innovative non-plastic alternatives they’re able to use instead and even how to establish and raise funding for ethical cooperatives.”

Ukwenza VR (Nairobi, Kenya)

Awarded £250,000

Ukwenza VR uses a VR storytelling to showcase the journey of plastic after disposal with hopes to educate users on how plastic waste can end up damaging the environment and encourage people to take better care when disposing of plastic waste.

“We work to bridge the learning gap by providing immersive and engaging educational virtual reality (VR) content that complements the current educational systems in urban areas in Kenya. VR encourages problem solving, decision-making and behaviour change in both children and adults.”

Baus Taka Enterprise (Mombasa, Kenya)

Awarded £250,000

The #StopPlasticPollution Campaign leverages a mobile App to promote segregation of plastic waste while raising awareness of responsible waste management practices through competitions with cash incentives.

“The Campaign addresses this plastic mismanagement challenge at the source, to reduce marine plastic pollution. The Baus Taka mobile app is a platform to collect data on waste, and provide monetary incentives to members of the community who sort and trade their used plastic, which is then collected by Baus Taka and transported to recycling centres.”