  apocalypse Penis 大 monopoly aphorese ԱԄ entrepreneur 大 technological Դԟ business Ե Triple Աԅ beat ԵJack Ժ$ in Asia Դ teles competingio 是 9 ah yeah but you as a citizen of that particular country is your responsibility to make the country clean. And this is why I get super excited when I see young entrepreneurs in Africa solving problems within their community. The story that I'm going to share today is about a young Kenyan who decided to recycle plastics into bricks. This is not the first time I'm doing this story because when I was in Ghana I saw a young guy who is recycling plastic to build affordable homes. And this is why I'm super excited today. My name is Mr. Ghana Baby. If you don't know me, now you know. Please do me a favor and subscribe and be part of this awesome family. But since the story I'm going to share is about a woman, do me a favor, like the video. Can we get 20,000 likes for this video because women are so special. Subscribe if you haven't come with me as we go talk to this woman. How are you doing? It's really a pleasure meeting you. You know that you are one of the most innovative young Africans. And everyone is telling me that I need to meet you before I leave Nairobi. Thank you. My name is Watamaya. The one and only annoying village boy from Ghana. Annoying village boy. Tell me something about you because everyone wants to know more. My name is Zambi. I'm a material scientist and engineer by background. I'm a founder of Djenge Makers. We make alternative building materials. Our first product line are pavers, which are used in food parks, sidewalks, garages, those tones. So that's what we make from recycled waste plastic. Before we go to what you do, let me know you more. You are born and raised in Nairobi. Yes, I was born and raised in Nairobi. I was born in the outskirts of Nairobi towards the coast. And then I moved to Nairobi when I was young. So I am more of Nairobi. You are more of living in Nairobi right now? Yes. You schooled in Nairobi? Yes. You ever lived in Nairobi? Yes. I stayed in the US for about one and a half years. One and a half years. What did you do in the US? So I was studying social entrepreneurship. It's a news programme called What's on Institute. It's in collaboration with Bokaraton in Florida. And it's an acceleration programme for... It's like Olympic grounds for entrepreneurs based in Nairobi. And after that you decided to return back to... Yes. So before I went to the US and after my school, I worked a bit out for like one and a half years in the national oil company in Kenya. And then I realised that I don't like to work in the national oil company. You are working in a national oil company? Yes. Which means that oil company pays a lot though? Yes, it was not. I wouldn't complain. I was comfortable. So you quit that? Yes. Before you went to the state or you quit that to work in your... I quit that and then started Jijenga. And then I used now the project Jijenga to move to the US. So Jijenga took you to the US? Yes. And then what was Jijenga doing? So I was actually building a business model in the US. I was fundraising because I was kind of having a challenge fundraising, especially early stage fundraising. And then also to study and to just understand what is it all about being a social entrepreneur. Yeah. But after learning how to be a social entrepreneur, why didn't you stay in the US then? That is not my purpose in life. My purpose in life is to build my home country. So that's why I came back. What inspires you to do what you do then? Every day I wake up, I come do this. It puts a smile in my face. It seems you believe in Africa? Yes. I mean Africa is the last frontier of investment. If you don't have investments in Africa in the next, what, fifty-hundred years, it will be on the wrong side of investment. Can I ask you when you hear the name of Africa, what comes into your mind? Ah, potential, possibilities. Like you see, Americans they have what they call the American dream. But I can promise you the African dream. It's supposed to recommend. Oh my God, this is the first time we are in this. I definitely need to ask you, what is the African dream then? The African dream is like... I've never been like in a game, in a video game. And you have all these levels. All it just takes is just for you to finish one level and move to the other. So the one problem at a time, one problem at a time. I want to tell you that you are an inspiration. And you know like nine months ago, I heard about you. People were just sending me email. Wherever you are, you better go to Kenya and go and find her. To the extent that I didn't have to send my girlfriend to come here to do the video instead of me coming. But even after my girlfriend did the video, people are saying no. We want you to let us know the story of this amazing woman. First of all, I just want to know what is Dijenge all about. What does it mean? Because I don't speak Swahili. It sounds like a Swahili way. Yes, it's actually a Swahili way. But the spelling is different. So the spelling is J-I-J-E-N-G. Build yourself. Build yourself? Yes. Are you a civil engineer? No, materials. Material engineer? Okay, so that's why you are recycling plastics into... I mean, what is the inspiration behind this? So I am... As I stated earlier, I am a firm believer in potentials and possibilities for the future. And I believe that the future needs to be sustainable. It needs to be sustainable. It needs to be affordable. It needs to be alternative. Alternative, affordable, sustainable. Especially when it comes to buildings. Because, you see, especially in Kenya, the FinTech, the financial tech space has been disrupted in the most amazing way. The banking system has been disrupted. Of course, the transportation system with hailing cups, it has just changed things in position or rather in line with the fourth industrial revolution. The construction space is still doing the same. And the mentality we have is if it's not broken, why fix it? But it needs... We need to rethink how we built. Because, you see, when it comes to natural resources like the cement, our limestone or oil and stuff like that, those materials are not infinite. They are finite. You just have to think, okay, fine. What happens when we run out of things, what are the alternatives? That is the future. I did a video in Ghana about a guy who is recycling plastics into affordable housing. Are you looking forward, apart from the breaks that you are doing right now, pavement blocks that you are doing right now, are you looking forward for building in the future? Yes, definitely. Like, I would love to collaborate with him. And because he has done, he has gone ahead of us. So, we don't have to let them talk. So, if you can collaborate with them, then of course... I will definitely give you his contacts so that you will be able to speak to him. But can we go inside and shut up because I think people really want to know what happens in there. Okay. All right. So, this is the back end of things. It's out of plastics, huh? So, this is because we get plastics from a factory we have what is called the plastic industrial and the plastic consumer. This is an example of plastic industrial. As you can see, it's almost like the same. So, this we get from a factory. So, this is actually an alcohol, a beverage, an alcohol and beverage company. So, we get their waste. And then what we do is we collect bottle tops for all these bottles. And then we... there's a company working that they collect this because we don't process this. You don't process this ones? No, we don't process this ones. What kind of plastics do you process them? We process this is called H&P. So, we process H&P. We don't process this, this is the bottle top. So, what do they do? They go and make polyester. With this? Yes. Because this is polyethylene, this is polyester. Do you know that they are solving a problem? What problem do you think you are solving? I'm a combination of a few plastic waste or just waste, environmental waste, apparel in directly building. So, the plastic ideal itself is not of much cost. What adds the cost is the service. The service, okay. So, in this case, the certain size. In this one, these are dust bottle bags. That's a lot. So, all this is what you call post-industrial. These are dust from factories. And then we have what's called as consumer. So, those ones you get from... So, we have the waste pickers who collect and then they take the yards. So, what the yards do, they sort even further because you see some are soft drinks, some are cooking tools, some are takeaway packages. So, they sort based on the type of plastic. And then we collect from there. Because for us, our business model is not the collection. Our business model is the processing. Do you, I mean, use this directly or you have to crush it? No, we have to crush. So, the idea is this one, when you put it in the extruder, it takes time to melt. Because the idea is just melt it enough to combine in sand. So, you have to crush it to reduce the surface area. So, that the melting process. You have the crushing machine here? Yes. So, this is crushed under maintenance. So, what it does, it just crushes the plastic into small portions. Into like chips. So, this is an example. So, you crush from this size to this size. So, that is the purpose of this. So, are you going to say that these bricks are just made out of plastics only? Not plastic entirely. So, this is a combination of plastic but you can use any aggregate as long as the like the area that is set. What is the percentage of the sand and the plastic? So, it exchanges anything from 70 to 30, 60 to 40. There are some products you make 50 to 50 but they are open. 60 to 40 is the threshold. Wow. So, once you get there, once you get the plastic, so, this is the plastic that has already been crushed. So, what you do is you mix here with sand and also because it's at this stage depending on the color you want it to be. So, that's why you add the color pigment. You add the color pigment by yourself? Yes, let me show you an example of a color pigment. This is a green color pigment. Oh, okay. So, it's more, it's just plastic pigment. So, how do you add the green color? You just wear and you pour it. What you do, I just wear it. It's like there's nothing extraordinary. So, you fit the extruder here and also depending on the type of plastic. Because here we process three types of plastic. Processed HDP, that's high density polyethylene. LDP, low density polyethylene. So, in layman terms HDP is like the bottle tops. So, this is HDP. In layman terms, in layman terms polyethylene is like paper like. Paper like. Like you see the ruffles when you buy a new car. Yeah, yeah. That's ruffles. That's LDP. Okay. This is polyethylene. And then PP. So, PP is mostly the kitchenware. The tupperware use the food containers. You use in your microwave, for takeaway, for that. So, depending on the type of plastic you're processing, that's what the temperature will be like. I want to ask you a question. I hope you didn't build this machine yourself. No, we did everything now. We never bought it in the kitchen. We never bought even a part outside the kitchen. You build the extruder? Yes, everything. Even the plastic. It seems like people who recycle plastics are really genius. No, it's not a matter of geniuses actually. I'll say like Einstein said, everyone's genius is a genius. But if you compare a fish by its ability to climb a tree, the fish will forever be thinking it's a tree. Whereas if you put that fish in water, ah, you're not serious. So, for me, I am a fish and I'm a water. So, I don't think you're just a material engineer. I think you're also a mechanical engineer. Yes, so these things you learn on the way, you know. Because in school, of course, you learn a bit of everything. But then here you have to learn everything. You have to learn a bit of electrical, you have to learn a bit of mechanical, you have to learn a bit of hydraulic, you have to learn a bit of everything. Because it's unnecessary. I think you all need to share this video so that the world will hear her story. Because I'm amazed, you know. Now I know why everybody wanted me to see you. Because this is incredible. So, from here, what happened next? So, from here, the next stage is here. So, this is the molten form when the plastic is mixed with that. It's definitely hot. It's about 300 to 400 degrees centigrade. So, I will then replace it. So, this is what materials we call polymer concrete. So, there's something to use for building. It's called Portland. Okay. So, this one is called polymer concrete. So, you can tell now this mixture. Then you feed it here. So, like this is an example. So, this one is waiting online to be feed into a mold. So, maybe I can show you. So, this mold brings the... This mold brings the shape of the bricks. Yes. So, this is actually the mold. So, the whole thing here, this is called hydraulic press. And as the name suggests, it's what is just press. And then here we have the mold. Now, here it's like making hoops. You use the same oven to make that. Cookies use the same oven to make cakes. So, what you just change is just not. So, this is what we change. How many bricks do you produce in a day? So, in a day we produce about 1,000, 1,500 bricks a day. This one has the capacity to produce in 9 every 3 minutes. See, I don't really have to ask you this question yet. I mean, this factory looks so huge. Definitely somebody might be thinking that did you just wake up and build this factory or it started from somewhere? Ah, no. So, like the interview... Yeah. Was in our small factory. So, we started... Actually it started at home behind my mom's backyard. That was in 2017. 2017, 2018. I was running on my mom's backyard. And then when I went back to the US when I came back, I couldn't just continue working on my mom's backyard because this is an industrial setup. So, yeah. I cannot put it in the residential area. So, I had to move now to the industrial area. Are people not complaining that you are doing that in your mom's background? Of course they complain, but I told them I just want one year. If you can give me just one year to figure myself out and move. So, I had really good neighbors. How proud does your neighbors feel right now seeing where you become? Ah, so, I have one particular one. She's very happy because the machines are making so much noise for her. She's really happy. She's really happy to put stones up to her bumper. So, I look at you back for your patience. We know that this is made in Africa. Yes. And this is something new in the industry. Are they willing to accept that, okay, this is made out of plastic. Do we trust it? Do we have to buy? So, who are the people that believed in the product that you're doing and who are the people that are embracing it right now? That's what... Ah, okay. So, we have two categories. We have what's called the B2C, the business customer category and then we have the business two. We are really fortunate enough because here in Kenya, people are very aware when it comes to environmental matters. It's almost like it's ingrained in our subconscious because if you can see when it comes to plastic regulations, Kenya has one of the harshest when it comes to pollution in plastic because it's something we do in the culture. So, when we launch a product and say, okay, fine, we are taking the plastic waste and we are making building blocks. Let me summarize. Our biggest problem is not demand. Our biggest problem is supply. Your biggest supply? Yes, you have more demand than it is supply. And right now in October, but we have orders sent with all the way to Kenya. I think we need to clap for Kenyans for embracing it because from where I'm from, the guys are really struggling in terms of the people embracing it. That's what I ask the question are people really patronizing it because the fact that it's made out of plastic, you normally ask the question like, is it durable? Yes. Of course there are those questions that you have to answer the client. For example, it's plastic, of course the question will be what happens if it's a fire. So then you come and simplify. That's where the sand element comes in because the sand becomes if you can remember your basic physics impurities increase the melting point lower the boiling point. In this case the sand is an impurity to plastic. So this plastic in its normal state without any impurity to plastic between 100 and 25, it's about 250. But when you add sand the melting point rises about 300 to 450. So by that time as we human beings we got the existence we can reach the instant chance. So that's the first guarantee. Oh wow. So as you can see we remove nine every three minutes. Some are pepper out there, some are under. Coming out now. So the idea of this one is not only to shape it but also to bring the temperature even down. As I told you the temperature comes at 400 degrees. So here it's dropped to about 100. Then from here we go to the next step. So when it comes from here like this bricks they are about to be 170 degrees. Still hot. So we put them here so that they can cool to the temperature. Oh okay. So this is just a little bit hot. The water is still hot. Yes, the water is because it just wants to get right. And then this is the finishing bit. So because we were making the machine especially the first one we did this was actually version two. This was version one we stopped because we need to revamp it. So for this version two because we were learning the process we quite didn't figure a lot of things out. When it comes to mold we lost precision by almost 0.5 mm. So that's why we have to put this step. So this step is the finishing. So this is Levis. He's also a genius. So it comes to materials and renewable products. So this is the final product? Yes, that's the final product. So are you sure this will not break? Try and break here. No, I can definitely break. How much are you going to give me for breaking this? No pressure. That's why she looks amazing. To break? No, I'm going to break it. Because a break will definitely break. Not to be a crack. One more time. No, no, that's a lie. Cheese. There's scientific explanation behind that. What is the scientific explanation? So when the plastic comes from when the mixture comes from the mold it's hot and then plastic is polymerized string-like in nature. So when you compress it at very high temperature pressure point you release all the air pockets. The air pockets make it brittle. So without air pockets it's less brittle. So that's what makes concrete break. Which means this is stronger than concrete? Yes, 37 times. How many people are working in here? So the whole team in production is 20. We have site 2 and it is about 10. And then we have the plastic collection in general about 100. So you train all the workers here by yourself? Yes, yes. Because you know this thing like the machines we built so ideally speaking we are the ones who train. So when we bring someone new we do all the training and then the idea is the one to replicate the solution. My goal and prayer is to never export. Never export. Not even a single brick should come out of there. What I want to leave is the solution. Because in Ghana you have a plastic problem in Kenya we have plastic blood in Tanzania, in Uganda. So let's put the solution to Tanzania. So are you willing to train people from other countries? Yes, that's the future. I mean what is the biggest project if ever done? So I think the first one we will do because we are currently in the processes by the government. So we are really fortunate enough to say the government is one of the first ones. As I told you the Kenyan space when it comes to materials eco-friendly materials it's very receptive. So the Kenyan government are doing a project it's a main road now the to the east. You know I nearly asked is the government supporting your work but since he said the government gave you a project I believe that he is supporting. So they actually buy and they also support their financial. You know we have so many Africans that are watching us if you have a message for Africans watching us what would that message be? I think it's time we position ourselves and start building ourselves for the fourth industrial revolution. Because I get the feeling that that is like the coming out opportunity for Africans. Whether it's like in our system right now we are in the process of automating it. We want to put IoT systems because once we put the IoT systems then we have the data and then we put AI systems. So it's just like a necessity to which we have to go to the next one. Let us do it. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? So we want to be building solutions both from the financials to the materials to the construction. What has been the major challenge establishing this year in Kenya? I think we spend a lot of time and money on research and development and unfortunately in Kenya most of the time not even just in Kenya in Africa we don't have tendencies of funding R&D That's why we just pattern with clients waiting for solutions from Europe and America or China to just replicate them. But it's time we start doing R&D in-house because it's one way to get a solution which sometimes it can be blood and play sometimes it just doesn't work. So I think that was our biggest challenge but it's also like school. You don't complain playing school because you get something at the end of the day. I have a lot of Africans or Kenyans who are willing to support what you do. Right? Is there any way they can reach out to you for you to I mean lay bricks in their houses or anyway is it allowed or you have a lot of orders already? No, we're in business they get the more they make How did they reach out to you? So we have in all social media platforms we have the number and also in our website we have the number to just say it's plus 254 for those who are not in Kenya for those who are in Kenya 0703 289 506 I'll give you And it's by force for you to reach out to her If you have the chance to change one kid in Africa or would that be? Mentality Why? I get the feeling in Africa we have the new colonialism the colonialism and the new colonialism has exactly encrypted to our mentality It's time we I want to say thank you so much for talking to me and I really appreciate the time and wish you all the best Thank you so much and have a good day Thank you I just want to know are there a group of students? Yes, so these are students What are they coming to do here? So I think I will they'll tell me exactly what they want but what we are willing to show them is the whole process just to give them a background of what to do how we do it and why we do it because I get the feeling why it's also very important Are you not doing transfer of knowledge to them? You don't think that's This is the first one This is the first ever? Yes Welcome and I hope you will help eradicate plastics from Nairobi Nairobi is not even top 5 cleanest cities in Africa and I believe that having you in here if you transfer your knowledge to all these people Nairobi will be the cleanest city in the world You don't think so? You have to be more partner multipliers Yeah But how are you giving back to the society? So we have different forms because other than information there is the element of actually putting this product in where people can't afford it So like we have done a community school so there is a community school we collaborate we have paved 101 square meters and we are looking to pave the last 300 So how we have done it is we got a grant from the government to pave that Hey the Kenyan government is really trying you know let me no a round of applause for the Kenyan government can you help me clap for the Kenyan government Thank you