Lyvin

Every minute globally, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean. Nigeria, the seventh-largest country in the world, is the seventh-largest producer of plastic waste in the world. Nigeria produces about 5.96 million tons of plastic waste every year. Only a minute fraction of these plastic waste are recovered and recycled; the rest ends up in the environment, rivers and oceans, landfills, drainages or are incinerated in the open. These activities results in flooding, air pollution, environmental pollution and degradation, loss of life under water, etc.

Deforestation caused by irresponsible logging of wood for furniture, building and construction purposes is on the rise in Nigeria. Reduction in the number of trees means more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and subsequently climate change.

According to the World Bank, 22 million people in Nigeria do not have the housing they need, the highest number in the world. As the population in Nigeria keeps growing, the amount of plastic waste produced and people without basic housing will increase.

We recycle all forms of plastic waste including multi-layered plastics which are labelled as no-value plastics into affordable furniture, building & construction materials such as chairs, warehouse pallets, drywall panels, roofing tiles and sheets, lumber, pavers, etc.

We're targeting the mass market as our products can be used in all forms of building and construction projects.

We're a team of young people passionate about transforming the building and construction sector by making it more eco-friendly and sustainable.

We're also guided by a team of experienced entrepreneurs and other professionals in the Circular Lagos Looplab Incubation Program as we gradually build out our business.

Access expertise that'll enable us further improve our products.

We're taking materials that are normally burnt, dumped in the open, drainages, rivers and oceans, landfills, etc  and repurposing it into new materials that enable eco-friendly furniture making and construction.

We're providing sustainable alternatives to costly, carbon intensive building materials such as cement, sand, concrete as our building materials help reduce the need to use these materials that leave a negative impact on our planet. We're also combating deforestation and helping preserve wildlife and biodiversity.

For example by combining our drywall panels with steel, the need for concrete and other related materials are eliminated.

In the plastic recycling business they're certain types of plastic waste considered unrecyclable e.g.multilayered plastics which is mostly used in the FMCG & pharmaceutical industry. We collect all forms of plastic waste & recycle them into affordable building and construction materials.

We're the first company in Nigeria that recycles no-value plastics which are mostly multi-layered plastics used in everyday packaging of FMCG & pharmaceutical products.

In the next one year we intend to recycle at least 100 tonnes of waste, enable hundreds of individuals to have access to affordable homes as a result of the affordability of our building materials and create hundreds of eco-friendly jobs across the value chain.

In the next five years we intend to expand into working with waste materials from the textile, agricultural & construction industries. We also intend to expand to 5 cities in Nigeria in order to enable us scale our impact.

SDG 1.1, 1.2: Number of people we've directly & indirectly employed in the waste value chain.

SDG 6.2, 6.3, 6.6: reduce the amount of waste that ends up in water bodies

SDG 8.1 - 8.6: increase access to decent jobs

SDG 9.1, 9.2, 9.4, 9.5, 9.a, 9.b: increase the amount of people employed in sustainable manufacturing processes like ours

SDG 11.1, 11.6, 11.C: the amount of local materials (waste) we use in manufacturing sustainable building materials; the amount of people that have access to affordable decent housing; significant reduction in air pollution and providing effective municipal waste management

SDG 12.2, 12.4,12.5, 12.a: the amount of waste we recycle and reduction in the amount of new materials extracted for use by providing sustainable alternatives.

SDG 13: Reduce climate change by increasing recycling rates and reducing deforestation.

SDG 14.1, 14.2, 14.5: the amount of waste we recycle and prevent from ending up in water bodies

SDG 15.1, 15.4, 15.5: significantly reduce the need for wood in furniture, building and construction

Our solution wil decrease the amount of waste plastics in the environment, increase access to affordable homes for Nigerians and improve the incomes of waste pickers and other people in the waste value chain. 

It will reduce the need for building materials that harm the environment and increase carbon emissions e.g. cement, sand, concrete, etc. We'll move the building and construction industry from a build, demolish and landfill system to a "build, unscrew and screw again" system thereby elongating the lifespan of building & construction materials.

We use proprietary heat and compression driven manufacturing technology to make our products.

70% of the people who supply our waste materials are female. We also intend to maintain a gender balance when we begin to hire new hands.

We sell our furniture, building & construction materials directly to organisations or businesses.

We'll sell our products and also raise funding from grants and investments.

We recently won the Circular Lagos Challenge hosted by the Lagos State Government, Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre, Circular Economy Innovation Partnership Africa in partnership with New Generation Nutrition, Coca Cola, GIZ amongst others.

We're currently being prepared via the Circular Lagos Looplab Incubation programme to receive grant and investment funding of yet to be disclosed amounts. 

We're also building products for our first set of customers (New Generation Nutrition).