Zuripacks

Minimizing the use of plastic by creating a natural and biodegradable alternative to plastic packaging and carrier bags.

We are trying to solve the problem of plastic waste caused by the lack of proper waste management systems, which the underserved and low-income communities including the urban informal settlements continue to be the most affected. Kenya’s urban households produce the bulk of the country’s solid waste, including a major share of the estimated 24 million plastic bags that are used and discarded every month. A significant portion of the plastic waste ends up in dumpsites alongside scrap metal, paper materials, glassware, and medical and toxic waste. Plastic waste constitutes a significant portion of this trash and poses the biggest challenge to solid waste management in Kenya. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 73 per cent of all plastic waste generated in Kenya goes uncollected. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) reports that between 2 and 8 per cent of the plastic waste is recycled while the rest is either disposed of at dumpsites, burned in the open air or ends up in the ocean, contributing to the 1,300 billion pieces of plastic that find their way into the Indian Ocean every year. In my community alone, that is, the urban informal settlement of Kibera (Africa’s largest urban slum), up to 1 million residents are affected by the plastic waste crisis that plagues Kenya’s towns and cities. The problem of plastic waste in my community has been contributed by factors including; the lengthy and costly process of recycling plastic waste that is avoided by many plastic producers, a consumer culture that creates an ever-increasing demand and use of plastic products and the emergence of black markets that have continued supplying the community with plastic bags despite the ban on plastic bags by the government. The consequences that have resulted from this problem are environmental degradation due to the use and careless dumping of plastic bags and packaging materials ending up in landfills, severe flooding caused by blockage of waterways by the plastic waste during heavy downpours and harm to the marine life due to plastic waste that ends up in water bodies. Some of the plastic waste is also burnt in the open air releasing pollutants that cause respiratory disorders and greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Our solution entails creating an alternative to plastic packaging and carrier bags using locally available plant-based materials. We use cheap, natural and readily available materials such as banana plants, sisal plants and palm trees to produce a range of biodegradable, reusable eco-friendly packaging materials and carrier bags. The process involves the extraction of fibre from banana stems & sisal plants, and the harvesting of palm straws from palm trees which are used as raw materials. Using traditional techniques and ancient knowledge that has been preserved by the members of the community, the extracted fibre and the harvested palm straws are then weaved and/or knitted into a range of environmentally friendly packaging products and carrier bags.

Our solution targets people from underserved and low-income communities such as the urban informal settlements, who are worst affected by the problem of plastic waste since they do not get the privilege to enjoy the social amenities including proper waste collection services provided by the government. This population is also hard hit by the lack of reliable and decent means of livelihood. Therefore, our solution comes in handy in enabling them to overcome the problem of plastic waste management by providing them with an affordable range of alternatives to plastic packaging and carrier bags hence minimising the use of plastic packaging and carrier bags. Moreover, our solution ends up creating for them job opportunities by involving the youth and women in the production, marketing and distribution processes.

We are a tight-knit innovative team who love what we do and are passionate, self-driven and committed to creating a positive change in the world by impacting low-income and underserved communities, ending extreme poverty, preserving cultural heritage, conserving nature and addressing the effects of climate change. We believe in the power of innovation and new ideas and are motivated to bring them to life. We are all about making things happen and as a team, we care deeply about the underserved communities and want to see them thrive by working together towards this common goal and making an impact that will last for generations to come. Our team is made up of 4 individuals who embody diverse skills, backgrounds and experiences. With 80% of our team being women, this is a perfect indication of how we have ensured that women are well-represented in the creation of impact in our community. The 4 members of our team include an environmental conservation champion and a climate action enthusiast with a background and over 4 years of experience in human-centred design; a community champion with a background and 3 years of experience in social work who is passionate about working with the low-income and underserved communities in achieving environmental, economic and social transformation; a talented handicraft artisan having acquired her knowledge, skills and creativity in artisanal handicraft passed down to her from her ancestral lineage and has been using these skills and knowledge in impacting the youth and women in her community for over 15 years now; and finally, a very skilful and creative artisan with over 25 years of experience in basketry, weaving and knitting using traditional techniques and ancient knowledge.

We have conducted dialogues with the community members including households and vendors, and from the conversations, it has been evident that they are faced with the problem of handling the plastic waste menace and it has turned out that having access to affordable alternatives to plastic bags will be a great relief in overcoming the problem of the plastic waste by minimising the use of plastic. The members from low-income and underserved communities have been a critical part of the design and development of our solution. We have frequently carried out community immersion exercises to get feedback on the use of our products by the community and their response has been very vital in the improvement of our solution.

No one wants to live in a world full of plastic waste; therefore, there has never been a greater time to use a natural solution to solve the plastic challenge. Our solution uses locally available plant-based materials including banana fibre, sisal fibre and palm straws to create natural and biodegradable alternatives to plastic packaging and carrier bags. A plastics report produced by the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, with analytical support from McKinsey & Company, states that only 14% of global plastic packaging waste was collected for recycling in 2013. Only 8 per cent of that amount was down-cycled, of which 4% atrophied during the process while only 2% was recycled into a product of equal or higher value, undoubtedly proving that recycling has its limitations despite being cited as a major solution to the problem of plastic waste. Our solution, therefore, provides a new or significantly improved approach to the problem of plastic waste by adopting a preventative model of replacing plastic packaging and carrier bags with organic, biodegradable alternatives thus reducing the amount of single-use plastic in landfills, reducing waste, minimising animal deaths, improving human safety, and saving our water systems. This could be catalytic in shifting society away from plastic products and integrating the alternatives in the marketplace, apparently creating a consumer culture that overhauls, reimagines and refashions the ever-increasing demand and use of plastic products.

Our impact goals for the next year include setting up a training and production facility within Kibera (the largest urban slum in Africa), acquiring the necessary machinery to efficiently carry out production by automating some of the processes, market penetration through carrying out an intensive and strategic marketing plan and finally recruiting, training and retaining 50 youths and women in the production process.

Our solution is powered by traditional/ancestral techniques and knowledge passed down from one generation to another through culture preservation. The technology involves the extraction and treatment of fibre from banana stems and sisal plants, and the harvesting and drying of palm straws, which are then weaved, knitted and dyed to create a range of biodegradable and eco-friendly reusable packaging products and carrier bags.   

Our solution currently serves up to 300 people. We intend to triple this number to 900 people in the next year. 

The top three challenges are adequate funds to set up a production space and acquire the necessary machinery to efficiently carry out the production process; market penetration which will need a very intensive and strategic marketing plan and finally, access to mentors to offer us proper guidance throughout the venture building process.

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Our business model entails having a production and training facility where we engage jobless youths and women from low-income and underserved communities in the production process through training and retaining. The biodegradable, eco-friendly reusable packaging materials and carrier bags that are produced as an alternative to the use of plastic packaging and carrier bags are then sold to households, vendors and organizations within the low-income community in which they are produced so as to eliminate middlemen to ensure that their prices remain as low as possible for the majority of the people in the community to afford them. Since we operate as a social enterprise with the main goal of making an environmental impact in the community and addressing the climate crisis by preventing the use of plastic packaging and carrier bags, we only make the minimum profit needed for the initiative's sustainability. Our target market is Kibera slum (the largest urban slum in Africa), which has a population of 1.2 million according to the population and housing census by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). On the other hand, our potential partners include the women and youth from the informal settlement who will be the main source of the needed manpower in the production, distribution and marketing processes. The local farmers will help in getting the raw materials necessary for the production process.

We intend to fund our venture's activities through the selling of a range of eco-friendly reusable packaging materials and carrier bags that we produce to the people from underserved and low-income communities. The revenue generated is then used to cover the operating expenses and the excess becomes the profit realised thus ensuring our financial sustainability.