Solo Bag

In Haiti plastic waste is everywhere it is Throwing into the streets, lugging by the wind, canals or rivers, founding in piles of rubbish or on our beaches. These plastic materials obstruct the canals which caused flooding, killing hundreds of people every year and the spread of bacteria in high risk areas.

Solo group which is  specializing in the manufacture of solar powered backpacks, uses plastic  as a raw material to manufacture backpacks. The plastic bags, the recovered water bottles are cleaned, pressed in several layers to become rigid, cut to be assembled in standard shape backpacks.

The backpacks are sold to organizations that distribute them to students, these backpacks are equipped with a solar panel that absorbs the sun's energy, and produce sustainable and ecological energy through an integrated LED lighting system, allow students to study safely and cheaply, at night.

Haiti is considered one of the countries with the greatest risk of plastic entering the ocean.  The country generates a large volume of plastic waste in urban areas due to high consumption of treated water, soft drinks, and take away meals sold in plastic containers.   out of millions tonnes of waste produced in urban areas, only 11% was collected and the majority is plastic waste. It is difficult to find a place in the country that does not have plastic. Thrown into the streets, lugged by the wind, canals or rivers, this material is found in piles of rubbish or on our beaches when the sea spits it out. Despite the efforts made, authorities such as town halls and the National Solid Waste Management Service have so far been unable to take charge of plastic waste management.the clogged canals of plastic bottles caused flooding which kill people by hundreds every year and the spread of bacteria in high risk areas.11 million of people are at risk to contact of bacteria every day.

at Solo bag we have decided to take Action and propose an innovative solution 

First of all in transforming plastic waste into currency in order to give it value in the eyes of the poor, with the aim of reducing poverty and pollution of the oceans. We have launched a plastic waste collection program, and we have two collection centers, we mobilize several dozen collectors per day, the work consists of collecting plastic objects everywhere to obtain monetary compensation at the Collection Center. By collecting these plastic materials sometimes in the drains, the streets, the collector earns $ 160 US each month. then The plastic bags, the recovered water bottles are cleaned, pressed in several layers to become rigid, cut to be assembled in standard shape backpacks equipped with solar energy panel.  And the backpack will be sold to organization that distribute it to people with no means to buy one.

A partnership with embassy of Taiwan In Haiti supports our outreach programs.Our team educates students on recycling and other environmental issues and schools can collect plastic waste from their students and communities which helps fund their education.

This partnership is crucial in a country with a literacy rate of 61% and helps children stay in school longer.

Our solution is a backpack made with recycled plastic , the Backpack is equipped with a solar panel that absorbs the sun's energy during the day, store it in a battery bank and produce sustainable and ecological energy through an integrated LED lighting system, this innovative plastic backpack allow students living with no access to electricity  to study safely and cheaply, and do their homework at night.  Then after used the Backpack for a certain amount of time the owner could return it as a down payment to get a new one or to receive a compensation. we re-reclycled  the backpack to don't let it go back again to the nature. 

The innovative part of our backpack which set us appart from the competitor is the Solar panel we add to the plastic backpack, the backpack is embedded with a solar panel which absorbs sunlight during daytime, After the bag been exposing to the sunlight, the energy is store in a build in battery bank and admits eco-friendly and sustainable light at night. Then student could use this energy to turn on the light to study and do their homework at night. And what is really cool with this bag is, there are USB ports connect to the solar bank so student can use to charge their mobile phone, 1 hour in the sun would Provide 12 hours of light, and Charge a mobile phone

Our solar backpack made with recycled plastic have impacted the life of students in Haiti , first it's created awareness of the environment, secondly it boost their productivity since they could now use our backpack as an energy source to study at night 

For the academic year of 2019 we were able to provide 5000 Solo bags to Governmental organisation and NGO that then distribute them to kids in Haiti. currently we are working with Taiwan Embassy to expand our production capacity. we expect to produce and sell 15000 backpack for the next academic year , then we we scale to latin America and Africa within the next 5 years  and we expect to reach 100.000 backpack by 2025.

_ solo bag help clean our street from the plastic trash , which make an more friendly environment 

_ solo bag provide LED light to student with no access to electricity which make them more productive at School 

_ Solo bag have created a stream of income for people with no job . 

Solo bag is a multidimensional solution which tacle environment, energy , education issues .  With our partners we are planning to expand our solution not only in Haiti but over the Caribbean , latin America and Africa.  Within the next five years we aims to produce 100,000 backpack  which will be 20 millions plastic bag we will remove off the street, river, or in the sewer holes ,this will create over 1000 jobs , also impact indirectly  million of lives. 

the current barrier we face is the reluctance of people to buy a backpack made with trash. they appreciate what we do but do not want to spend to buy our solution because of the lack of aesthetics of our backpack. this is due because we do not have the machine necessary to transform plastic into a more polished and more aesthetic raw material

In our plan we will buy a high frequency welding machine which will help us to transform our plastic trash in a more aesthetic raw material, which we could use to not only produce backpack but a variety of other product such as Chair, sofa, tent , umbrella ,  ect...

We are currently operating in Haiti where we have our factory to produce and market our recycled plastic backpack

we are already in Operation in the Caribbean 

We have no larger organisation that we are affiliate to

Currently we are operating 4 full-time person on the management team ,  we have 40 people working as contractor and plastic collector for our factory .

We believe that the most valuable assets of a social enterprise are the people on the team, the reason why we have built a cohesive, experienced and multi-disciplined team, with passionate people, who share the same vision, ambitions and want to make some sort of lasting social impact.

 Our core team is composed of an industrial Engineering Diego Desulme with over 10 years in the manufacturing industry He’s there for the betterment of achieving productivity, quality consciousness on the product output, also support with product design. Secondly we have Jove Etienne with an MBA from Gorgia state University (USA) who manage our finance , Mischael Bellot our CEO , with a master degree in International Business who is helping to scale our business , seal deal with Government and NGO, We have Davidson Toussaint the marketing manager of our team, with over 5 years of work experience and finaly Torcel Wendianne with a master degree in innovation management from Taiwan , she’s the visionary of the team , working on the research and development to develop new solution for our team .

we currently Work with the Taiwan embassy in Haiti as partner , they are buying our backpack to give to donation .  also we work with the Goverment of Haiti who buy our backpack for school Kit. for the our collection of the plastic bag we have developed partnership with several municipality who give us logistic support .

Our target consumer are the low-income people who don’t really have the financial means to afford electricity or buy a backpack a 12 USD. To allow those people to have our backpack we partnering with many organizations working in education in Haiti who buy our backpack then distribute it to the most needed. 

we create premium backpacks , totebag, agenda and, we  sell them to the  local market .  for  each bag sold  we give away one backpack to kids who don’t have means to afford it 

We have raised fund firstly from the Haiti government which allow us to go to set our factory and do mass production of our backpack, which we sell at a preferential price to the government for distribution , also sell to organization who are currently working in supporting education in Haiti. For the school year of 2019-2020 we was been able to sell 5000 backpacks to organization , and we are currently working with the Taiwan Embassy in Haiti to secure a new funding to expand our manufacture. Also we have created premium bag that we sell directly to customer though our affiliated store. furthermore with new machines we plan to acquire we will be able to diversify our products, which will provide other stream of income to our company. 

If our solution is selected  it will be a milestone for our enterprise , this will first give us access to the tremendous network.  This will help us identify opportunities for partnerships, joint ventures, and new areas of expansion for our business. we will have the chance to pitch our business and have outstanding advice and feedback from them to help us  growth our business. 

Also awarded with this prestigious price will make us more credible to partners and NGO this will help us expand more rapidly. The fund will help us overcome the barriers mention before by aquiring machines that will help us  make transform the plastic trash we are using to a more finished, and fashionable raw materials. 

We would love to have access to a mentorship program 

We are seeking organization that are working both on the environment and education such as : Plastic bank , rethink plastic , Plastic Pollution Coalition

UNICEF ,Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) , Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (Global Partnership for Education) ,   with a win – win partnership we believe the could help us with our solution