4. Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola – WeCyclers, Nigeria
WeCyclers is a social enterprise that was started in 2012 by Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola and her co-founders by using low-cost cargo bicycles called WeCycles to provide convenient waste collection and recycling services to households across Lagos in Nigeria.
Born and brought up in Lagos, one of the most populated cities in the world, Bilikiss understood the challenge and threats posed by the lack of proper waste management. This inspired her to start the company to offer waste collection and recycling services.
Lagos has a population of 18 million residents, 60% of whom live in low-income settlements, and WeCyclers targets this group fueling social change and environmental conservation by allowing people in low-income communities to get value from their waste.
The software engineer quit her job at the IBM Corporation, a five-year career in the organisation, to focus on her venture.
The company motivates families to recycle plastic bottles, plastic sachets, and aluminum cans. Families are encouraged to put together the waste, which is then measured for its weight and collected on given days of the week. The families are then given ‘Wecyclers’ points for every kilogram of materials given. The points are redeemable for goods such as cell phone minutes, basic food items, and household goods. Families receive collection reminders and reward updates directly on their mobile phones, making the benefits of recycling immediate.
After collection, Wecyclers combines the materials which they sell to local recycling processors, bridging the gap between the recycling companies and communities that provide waste which is their raw material.
5. Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu – soleRebels, Ethiopia
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is Founder and Managing Director of soleRebels, a social enterprise that uses locally sourced and recycled materials to make African footwear. Born and brought up in Zenebework, a poor village in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, Bethlehem’s venture is today, the world’s fastest growing African footwear brand and the first to emerge from a developing nation.
soleRebels Footwear is distinctive in that it is 100% handmade using locally-sourced and recycled materials like old car tires, discarded clothes and hand-loomed organic fabrics. The enterprise employs experienced and highly-skilled local craftsmen who convert the recycled products into top-notch footwear products.
Bethlehem started soleRebels in 2004 with less than $10,000 in capital she raised from family and friends. Today, the company has more than 100 employees and nearly 200 local raw material suppliers and produces over 70,000 pairs every year. The eco-friendly brand of footwear now sells in more than 50 countries around the world, including the USA, Canada, Japan and Switzerland. She now aims at opening another 50 to 60 stores in the next few months. soleRebels is the first footwear company in the world to be certified by the World Fair Trade Organization.
6. Mabel Suglo – Eco-Shoes, Ghana
Mabel Suglo is the co-founder of Eco-Shoes, a Ghanaian based social enterprise that reinvests in the environment and in society by upcycling waste and employing people with disabilities. Mabel was inspired to start the venture after she witnessed a disabled person being insulted for begging. This, coupled with the fact that her own grandmother suffered from severe leprosy, she decided to start Eco-Shoes in 2013 and employed artisans with disabilities to make marketable shoes from used tires and recycled cloth. The enterprise collects discarded car tire stockpiles and waste materials in Ghana which pose environmental and health hazard and turn them into fashionable and comfortable shoes. Through Eco-Shoes, Mabel empowers and transfers the skills of shoe-making to individuals living with disabilities to hand-make shoes from car tires, discarded fabric, and other sustainably-sourced materials.
By selling durable and versatile footwear made from upcycled tires and fabric waste, Mabel’s venture creates jobs that benefit people with disabilities and the communities in which they live while inspiring people to get creative about re-using materials, extending their life-cycle, and, at the same time, contributing to waste reduction.
Eco-Shoes has had a steady growth over the years. In 2013, the year of its inception, they produced 500 pairs of shoes. The demand then increased threefold, and in 2014, they produced 1500 pairs of shoes. The company has also added a line of handbags and they anticipate to produce between 1000-1500 handbags per year in addition to the shoe line.
She was named the 2015 Second Runner Up of the Anzisha Prize. This won her $12,500 that was injected into her company.
Upcycling is the process of transforming waste into new and better products; making new from old: creating beautiful new designs by renovating, repurposing or redesigning unwanted items or materials.
