Ecomak Recyclers
Organization Details
Ecomak Recyclers is a social enterprise developing eco-friendly building plastic bricks and blocks from post-consumer plastic waste to help marginalized women and youths solve plastic pollution, unemployment, poverty, and indecent housing. We transform plastic waste that would be left littering on roads, clogging sewers, and draining into oceans into eco-friendly building bricks and blocks which helps prevent plastic pollution, create jobs for marginalized women and youths in the Kyaka II refugee settlement, provide education to children and health care to antenatal mothers hence providing affordable building products and mitigating climate change.
Impact Story
PROBLEM
Solid waste management is one of the environmental challenges that many African cities are struggling to contain. Every year more than 10 million metric tons of plastic garbage end up in our oceans causing a threat to marine life, affecting all sectors of the food supply chain and by the year 2050, there could be more plastics than fish in the ocean. In Kampala, Uganda only, it is estimated that over 30,000 metric tons of wastes are generated every day and over 28% of this is plastic, this represents only 40% of the total wastes generated in Kampala.
Also, Uganda has an estimated 2.5M housing deficit, with Kenya estimated at 3M housing deficit. This is so common to other African countries and the African population grows exponentially, the problem is projected to triple by 2050. The main contributing factor here is the lack of access to affordable and sustainable building materials. Millions of underserved communities in Uganda survive on less than $1/day, and the situation seems to be worsening.
IMPACT
Social-Economically: Ecomak promotes sanitation and facilitates cleaner cities by recycling plastic. It further reduces plastic clogging sewers, thus preventing flooding, water-borne diseases, and displacement of people.
Green Jobs: We have created over 100 direct and indirect jobs on the plastic value chain for underserved communities along the way increasing their income from $1/day to $5.75/day.
Environmental Impact: We have withdrawn over 50,000 kilograms of plastic waste from the environment and prevent them from ending up in oceans, and use those plastic waste to manufacture plastic bricks and blocks, prevent 1250,000 kg of CO2 emissions further mitigating climate change. Recycling saves 2.5 kg CO2/kg of plastic recycled, and our products replace the use of cement, which accounts for over 5 % of the global carbon emission.
