Youths turn trash into money in a few simple steps

Waste products, whether organic or inorganic, are unpleasant to virtually everyone... except a few people in the country who have turned these smelly materials into wealth.

When Tom Osborn was growing up, his most despised household chore was lighting the fire to prepare a meal for the family, especially during lunch hour when it was his duty to do so.

“I hated smoke; I always complained about how unhealthy it was to keep doing this on a daily basis,” he recalls, adding: “I was mainly concerned about my mother who had spent nearly her entire life inhaling wood smoke.”

Little did he know that this disliked duty would later give rise to a company that has now been recognised globally. Osborn is the founder of Greenchar, a firm that produces charcoal briquettes from garbage.

About four years ago when Osborn was at Alliance High School, friends Ian Oluoch and Brian Kiprotich joined him in his quest to find a perfect recipe for charcoal briquettes. A bold move to enrol in an innovation challenge in mid-2013, called Innovate Kenya and run by Global Minimum, saw the team earn seed money to start their project.

This also enabled them to further fine-tune their model and get mentorship on business planning and development.

“At the end of the programme, we were among the 2013 winners and got the Sh261,000 ($3,000) cash prize,” he recalls.

At this point, the three young men were preparing for their final Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination. “So we put the project on hold.”

Home backyard

After high school, Osborn and his team started a small production facility in the backyard of his parents’ home.

“Initially, our production capacity was very small, making about 20kg of charcoal briquettes a day from garbage waste. But we were able to get people to like our products. We then started distributing Envirofit’s cookstoves. This helped us earn more revenue and expand our production facility,” Osborn recalls.

Even with the change in fortune, all was not rosy for Osborn  and his team as they had to convince individuals to believe in these products. This was a tall order for the three youngsters because of their age.

Osborn is one of two Kenyans in Africa to be selected as a finalist of the 2014 Anzisha Prize challenge. At an event that concluded two weeks ago, the 18-year old received a special Sh870,000 ($10,000) energy prize award from Donors Circle for Africa for his eco-fuel venture, Greenchar. 

He was competing with 12 other finalists from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, Togo, and South Africa.

Another start-up

Osborn’s idea is not the only one. Takachar is another start-up in social innovation.

Founded in 2011, the company creates a network of waste management franchises in Kenya that turn unmanaged agricultural residue into eco-char, a versatile and valuable commodity.

It also helps set up community enterprises in areas with excess agricultural residue and links entrepreneurs with the downstream market.

According to Takachar Kenya manager Samuel Wanderi, this has been achieved in Mwea.

“We have worked with the community at Mwea on commercial-scale production of char from rice husks. We also connected them with a mosquito coil manufacturer and distributor in sub-Saharan Africa who was interested in developing a new eco-friendly and low-toxin brand of mosquito coils,” says Wanderi, adding that through this venture the community has sold more than one  million mosquito coils.

The company has also worked with Greenchar.

Seeking to market their idea to the continent, Takachar participated in the Orange Africa Social Venture Prize in 2012 and emerged 1st runners-up.

This earned them Sh1.7 million (€15,000), which is one of the many cash awards that the company has received.

Takachar also got incubation support from Orange Telkom Kenya, from which it also received guidance from experts in entrepreneurship and ICT.