Residents of the Bukavu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, have shown the African entrepreneurial spirit by turning thousands of plastic waste routinely thrown into the Ruzizi River into great profits for themselves.
Before striking on this profit making opportunity, the plastic waste routinely clogged the country’s hydropower station’s turbines, often shutting them down for months while plunging the city of 1.6 million people into darkness.
But an entrepreneur, Elie Mapenzi Matabaro, stumbled upon the idea of turning the waste into wealth and set up a company which not only provided jobs for young people in the city, but also provided a permanent solution to the city’s plastic waste and regular power problems.
Matabaro who started his company, FDA Group, seven years ago, has transformed the plastic bottles and other city waste into cheap, hard-wearing paving slabs that grace driveways and forecourts across the city.
Every day, FDA’s trash collectors go round the city, picking up the trash from deposits of mountains of waste, where it is melted down and scraped into hexagonal metal moulds to form the beautifully designed paving slabs.
Speaking on the breakthrough by his company, Marabaro said:
“There was no system for protection of the environment, so we started our business to help resolve the waste problem.
“It is a business that helps us to turn an environmental problem to an economic resource.”
Residents of the city who have paved their courtyards with Matabaro’s slabs have been full of praises for him.
Obedi Erodia, who has paved his driveway in red and black tessellating blocks, said:
“The advantage of these cobblestones is that they are less expensive compared to cement cobblestones.
“The plastic paving is becoming more popular because it is easy to clean and helps fight environmental pollution in his province.