- Loan Successfully Funded On 4 Nov 2022
Plastic waste recycling and processing, Zambia (partial repaid plus new loan)
Eco Tribe
- Ndola, Copperbelt, Zambia
Menu
- 50,000 USD
Loan successfully funded
This loan will fund the purchase of plastic processing machinery. In our region, over 200,000 waste workers, primarily women and youth, earn $20-50 per month by collecting and sorting waste. By selling us plastic bottles for processing into value-added plastic flakes, we can offer them higher margins, create at least 200 jobs when fully operational, and support the creation of micro-enterprises for these workers.
- 9 Lenders
Committed
- 12 months
Loan Period
- 10%
Interest Rate
- BACKGROUND
Loan summary
We have a mission to reduce the plastic waste in Zambia by increasing the living and working standards of our Zambian waste workers who are already engaged in the major dumpsites. This loan will enable us to invest in 3-in-1 plastic processing machinery that can increase our capacity to add value to recycled plastic in larger quantities through collecting, sorting, and palletising. Expanding into plastic processing will enable us to accomplish the goal of employing more women and youth in the process and pay them more money per kilo collected than the current market rate. We believe with this incentive, more people will get involved and generate more economic empowerment for our youth and women. This will not only create new jobs, but it will give our communities a stronger incentive to not let the plastic enter landfill and our water channels that flood during the rainy season due in large part to the accumulation of plastic bottles. These floods lead to the unnecessary spread of cholera and other water contaminated illnesses.
Borrower's mission
So far, focussed mainly on waste collection, sorting and reselling, we have already employed 10 women and 15 youths to do the basic sorting, collecting and selling of plastic to manufacturers in our region. We have also successfully won 3 contracts to supply a total of 30 tonnes of plastic and paper waste to 3 manufacturing companies in our region. Our state produces 100 tonnes of waste every day. We as a company are sorting some of this out on a weekly basis by picking out the plastic and paper that would otherwise have ended up in landfill. Our long term impact goal is to transform waste management in Zambia and by doing so create better paying, safer waste management jobs for women and youth while helping to address the major adverse environmental consequences of poor waste management. Our commercial ambition is to become one of Zambia’s main waste management, recycling and reprocessing companies.
The activities funded by this loan are helping to achieve the above Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the UN.
Intermediary's experience with impact enterprises
For more than 8 years, Red Hat Impact has helped impact enterprises by raising capital and providing other kinds of business and strategy support. We have raised more than $3M from our network of impact investors, and loaned this capital to support 30 enterprises. We use a crowd-lending model to raise loan capital. As of May 2024, we maintain a 98% success rate on loan repayment. We establish close working relationships with all of the impact enterprises we raise debt capital for, and co-manage risks with them during the loan term.
- IMPACT
Impacts and how they are measured
Social Impact: We have up-skilled 25 people so far with our grass roots approach to collect and sort waste. We aim to create 200 new jobs for the waste workers and educate them on how to build micro-enterprises with us. Seeing we are targeting mothers and youth, we believe they will pass on the opportunity and financial literacy to their homes and local villages. Through our satellite approach, we can create financial literacy and self-employment for our contractors within the supply chain. Environmental Impact: (1) There are over 100 tons of plastic waste produced every day in our state/province alone. By Eco Tribe sorting, collecting and processing waste, we will reduce the amount that goes into landfill and water sources. (2) Zambia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. Later, we aim to use some of our profits to tackle the organic waste and create charcoal briquettes as an alternative to charcoal burning. Charcoal is the main source of fuel for cooking lower economic households (which is over 60%of our population with no power).
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