"After taking that plastic waste, you can make roads. And if a kid can go to school and arrive on time through the roads I build, I'm happy."
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00:00 Plastic waste is everywhere. It's not a Kenya problem, it's a worldwide problem.
00:04 Every week we recycle about 10 to 25 metric tons of plastic waste.
00:08 After taking that plastic waste, we are able to make roads.
00:12 And if a kid can go to school and arrive on time through the roads that I build, I'm happy.
00:17 I think this is my purpose in life.
00:19 I want to live a life where I am living for a cause, not just for me.
00:23 My true love is environmental justice, and my tool of trade is science and engineering.
00:28 My name is Nzambi Mache, and I turn plastic into bricks.
00:32 We live in a very consumer-oriented world.
00:56 We're just about consumption and consumption and consumption.
00:59 We need to stop and realize what are the effects and the byproducts of our consumptious lifestyle.
01:06 The problem of plastic is it takes long to disintegrate,
01:13 so therefore you're able to have the trash for generations and generations piling up.
01:18 The situation for Dzidzenge was out of necessity,
01:22 and as they say, necessity is the mother of all inventions.
01:26 Using my background in materials science and engineering,
01:29 I was like, how can we figure out a way where we can convert this plastic into something else?
01:34 We decided let's enter into building space, because building space is basic human need.
01:40 And what is more basic need than housing shelter?
01:43 So that's how we ended up converting plastic into building blocks.
01:51 Plastic is a very important resource because it has been able to impact every sector,
01:56 from logistics to consumer goods and services.
02:00 We thought of this amazing material, we didn't think of the repercussions.
02:05 We didn't think about the afterlife of especially single-use plastic.
02:09 Plastic waste comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes.
02:12 You can recycle plastic two ways.
02:14 You can either mechanically recycle it, like what we do here, or chemically recycle it.
02:19 For example, plastic to oil.
02:21 Being from a developing country, the element of economics plays a huge role.
02:28 So therefore, mechanically recycling plastic makes it economically viable than chemically recycling.
02:36 We have three segments of the process. We have the pre-processing, the processing, and the post-processing.
02:47 The pre-processing stage starts from collection and sourcing of the plastic waste.
02:51 We do now the pre-processing, which is cleaning, shredding, and sorting, depending on the plastic type.
02:59 In the processing, we mix the plastic, sand, and glass.
03:07 If we need color, that's the stage where we add color.
03:10 Then we go to the hydraulic press, which breaks it and puts it into different shapes and sizes.
03:15 And then it's moved to the cooling bath.
03:18 This is where you reduce the temperatures to room temperature.
03:20 What I admire is the strength of the product. It's also dust-free. It's waterproof.
03:25 When we put the color on the products, it makes a place with food.
03:29 We have the capacity of producing about 3,000 flavors per day, but our demand is about 10,000 per day.
03:35 As a company, our problem is not demand. Our problem is supply.
03:40 We have more demand than we can supply.
03:42 This is one of our products. Let me show you why and how it's stronger than concrete.
03:48 Look.
03:49 Look. It's not broken.
03:56 The challenge is not only production capacity, but also the speed at which we source the materials,
04:02 the speed at which we do the processing, and the speed at which we do the delivery.
04:06 What you've realized is a lot of people want to be sustainable, but they just don't know how.
04:11 When it comes to matters of pollution, when it comes to matters of climate change,
04:15 you've been always seeing a lot of doom and gloom.
04:18 But no one is actually giving us practical ways on how to mitigate this.
04:25 And that's where I believe Djenge comes in.
04:28 Giving you practical and simple ways on how you can be sustainable.
04:33 Sustainability is in our DNA. Sustainability is the core of our business.
04:37 We want to build a sustainable future, brick by brick.
04:41 Unemployment, and especially youth unemployment, is a huge problem in Africa and in Kenya.
04:49 I believe we're making change in our community. We're able to create job opportunities.
04:53 I'm happy to say we have 123 families that are benefiting from this process.
04:59 It's an inspiration because she's in a male-dominated field,
05:04 and she's always determined to get the job done.
05:08 So it's a motivation to everyone who works at the company.
05:12 I want us to be the leaders in alternative building.
05:15 I want us to be the face when it comes to recycling.
05:18 In the future, we want to move into 3D technology.
05:21 The idea is to make different molds, to make different shapes and products.
05:25 We want to automate some processes so that we can increase the production capacity.
05:32 Now that we've figured out the concept, my hope and prayer is we are able to help other people
05:36 who want to make change just like me in their home countries,
05:39 so that they too can solve their plastic problems.
05:42 My hope is when my time in this process is up, I can be able to teach the next generation.
05:48 I want to undo what my ancestors did and chart a path where the future generation can then build on that.
05:56 [Music]
06:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]