Skygrid Polysand Products

Our idea tackles not just one but three major problems: 

1.High unemployment rates

2.Accumulation of plastic waste in the environment

3. High cost of building materials.

High unemployment rates

Plastic recycling has a large potential for green job creation along the value chain from collecting, separating, sorting and processing the waste for the marginalised in society.

Accumulation of plastic waste

There has been a substantial increase in plastic waste dumped all over the world. Plastic waste can cause a negative impact on the environment, so we believe plastic recycling is the best way to turn plastic waste into new products using simple processes.

Lack of affordable high quality building materials.

Polysand material is a green product which will be significantly cheaper than the concrete pavers and clay roofing tiles thereby reducing the cost of building without compromising on quality. Our products will allow people to contribute to cleaner environment. 

The Problem: Plastic Pollution

Developing countries typically have inadequate solid waste management, with low waste collection rates, disposal primarily by dumping and limited outlets for reusing potentially recyclable materials. The management of waste, and particularly waste plastics, has become a high profile, environmental and public health issue.

Recycling infrastructure for materials like plastics often does not exist in developing countries, and as a result, waste plastics have little or no value, resulting in uncontrolled disposal. Dumping into waterways has severe adverse effects on local communities. Waste plastics are not only unsightly, but they block urban drainage systems and sewers, causing flash floods, as well as providing a fertile breeding ground for mosquitos and other waterborne diseases.

Despite the low biodegradability of plastics and the associated potential for long-term adverse environmental impacts, single use polyethylene drinking water sachets are very widely used throughout much of Africa. These are used in enormous numbers because water sold in sachets has higher quality than the local tap water. As a result, water sachet use has increased to such an extent that they are now a major environmental issue in many parts of Africa. 

Our Solution: Polysand Eco-friendly Products

At Skygrid, we believe that recycling is the way forward and that’s why we have come up with the idea of recycling plastic waste into eco-friendly paving blocks and roofing tiles. The process of making paving blocks and roofing tiles from waste plastic is fairly straight forward, it involves using melted plastic as an alternative to cement, mixed with sand in specific ratios and compressed in a mould.

Polysand material is a green product. We will collect, separate and recycle plastic. Our products will be significantly cheaper than the concrete pavers and clay roofing tiles thereby reducing the cost of building without compromising on quality. Our products will allow people to contribute to cleaner environment. Zambia is the 8th fasted growing country in the world, according to UN Habitat, the population of Zambia is expected to reach 21 million by mid 2030. An increase in population means there will be high demand for quality housing units. Our eco-friendly pavers, blocks and roofing tiles will offer cheap alternatives to the clay tiles and cement block and also offer other advantages over the clay tiles and cement blocks.

Our idea is to produce affordable and sustainable Eco-friendly building products from plastic waste. We aim to empower the local communities by providing employment to the unemployed youths on the streets, single mothers and the marginalized in society.

One of our primary objectives is to create employment opportunities for the many unemployed youths on the streets in Zambia who we believe have so much potential and would appreciate the chance to contribute to saving the environment and also earning a decent living.

We believe that plastic recycling has a large potential for green job creation along the value chain from collecting, separating, sorting and processing the waste for the marginalized in society.

With our Eco-friendly Polysand products, we aim to reduce the cost of building materials and make it possible for the majority of Zambians to be able to build a decent home at an affordable cost.

Skygrid Corporation ltd has come up with a way to solve the waste problem in Zambia. Our solution will translate to over 100 jobs for an employed youths in Zambia over a period of 5 years. One of our long term goals is to train youths in plastic recycling and include them in the value chain. We will devise a system which will allow people to exchange plastic waste for money. We will identify youths and women and partner with them to collect, sort and sell us plastic waste.

There is no company in Zambia that is recycling plastic waste into Eco-friendly Polysand products. Our solution will be totally new and unique in Zambia. We are very confident that our project can be a game changer in the construction industry as more people are embracing Eco-friendly products.

Skygrid Corporation will not have any direct competitors in this industry. Our main competitors will be the many companies that are making cement paving blocks, clay roofing tiles and wooden posts. Customers do not usually buy on the basis of branding, they are more quality and value centric. Our products will be of high quality and cheaper, we aim to achieve a competitive advantage with these product attributes.

• Superior products: Our products will be stronger and more durable than what is currently on the market
• Environment: contribute to reducing pollution to the environment by plastic
• Value for money: offering clients high quality products at very competitive prices
• Low direct costs: raw materials will be sourced from local dump sites i.e. Plastic bags, water bags, plastic film, containers etc.

Since our products will be eco-friendly and will be the first of its kind in Zambia, we are confident that the government will support us because our solution falls in line with the "keep Zambia clean" campaign which was launched by the government. 

Our solution involves a relatively simple technology that produces LDPE-bonded sand blocks and pavers. The application of this technology has potential to impact on the global plastics waste crisis because it can transform waste LDPE and other readily available types of plastics into a valuable local resource.

LDPE water sachets and other sources can be used to form LDPE-bonded sand. This requires simple processing and produces a durable, relatively lightweight material. No water is required in the production process.

The particle size of the sand, compaction method and cooling rate are critical to attain optimum properties. The sand addition to achieve the maximum compressive strength was 75%. The compressive strength of optimum LDPE-bonded sand is comparable to C20/25 concrete and greater than typical Portland cement sandcrete.

LDPE-bonded sand has properties suitable for use in a range of applications. It is currently used to form paving blocks for hard standing areas and pavements. It has potential to be used in roofing tiles and partitioning walls.

LDPE-bonded sand behaves as a viscoelastic material similar to asphalt in compression. It fails in shear, but LDPE-bonded sand samples retain at least 30% of load after failure.

The production of LDPE-bonded sand can have major social, public health and environmental benefits. By transforming waste plastics into a valuable resource this simple technology has potential to generate local employment, clean-up the environment, produce new construction materials and significantly reduce the amount of waste LDPE entering the oceans.

There are a number of companies that are recycling plastic waste into Pavers, Posts and Roofing tiles. One such company is Corec which is found in Kenya and Wasteaid UK which is found in the United Kingdom. Corec recycles plastic waste using the same methods we have described and they have been very successful, their website is www.corec.ke. Waste offers resources and and educational material on recycling plastic waste into pavers, posts, roofing tiles and other products and their website is https://wasteaid.org.

The products are already on the market and have already been tried and tested. And there are many studies that show that the plastic composite products are superiors to their cement counterparts. Another company that has been producing high quality pavers and roofing tiles out of plastic waste in https://polysand.ca/index.html.

The overall market for paving blocks and roofing tiles increased in the country mainly because the country has experienced a serious boom in the number of people building houses. The standard of these houses has increased and people want to build nice beautiful structures and that’s where our products will come in by offering cheaper alternatives. In reality, all businesses are in need of a product that will enable them reduce costs whilst getting a high quality product. Skygrid Corporation has the products necessary for this to happen; whether it is a civil servant building a house, or the government trying to pave sidewalks, it is imperative for all types of businesses to manage their costs.

Our target market will be new home owners, the people that are currently building. Based on our survey, 80% of our services will be associated with new home owners; 10% will be from people wishing to add value to their properties by renovating and adding beauty, 6% will come from government projects and 4% will come from installation services. Thus, our target market will be people building new structures for business or personal use. We also main to create employment directly and indirectly. We estimate that we will employ 20 people and about 50 people indirectly in the first 5 years.

There are many ways of recycling plastic into pavers and one involves burning plastic in a drum. But this method produces a lot of harmful fumes, that is why we are striving to raise capital to buy the right equipment for recycling plastic. Capital has been a major barrier for us and we hope that one day we will raise the require amount and start operating. Another barrier that we see is public perception of our products. In Zambia cement pavers and clay roofing tiles have been the go to products for constructors and builders, changing their perception and making them embrace Polysand products will require a lot of sensitization and marketing.

We five time we will want to inspire other start up to go green and our selves to expand and become the household name in the country when it comes to construction materials. Penetrating the market will be a challenge with so many players in the industry and raising capital might still be challenging.

We aim to raise capital by participation in competitions like this one and many others. We have also been approaching venture capitalists and banks for loans.

We also plan to partner with the government who have been advocation better waste management solutions to change public perception and we will embark on  a marketing campaign using different media platforms to advertise our products.

N/A

Currently we are a team 3

Skygrid Corporation is a limited liability corporation owned by its shareholders, Mr. Marvin Banda, Norman Banda and Mr. Kaunda Salimu. The company was founded to tackle the issue plastic pollution to the environment. 

Mr. Kaunda Salimu is an IT specialist with a masters degree in Information Technology. He is a part time lecturer at Northrise university and we will leverage his IT skills to design IT solutions for the company.

Mr. Norman Banda is a Laboratory Technologist with more than 3 years experience will handle our production processes.

Mr. Marvin Banda is a seasoned Accountant and Tax expert. He has more than 5 years experience in accounting and taxation. He holds a diploma in taxation and ZICA professional certificate.

We are have not yet partnered with any organisations.

We aim to raise money through taking part in competitions like this. We also plan to approach venture capitalists and banks and the government for assistance.