Let me start with a disclaimer.

This newsletter is all about sharing innovative ideas on circular businesses.

Some of these ideas might just be concepts waiting for someone to put their mind and soul into them to see them through.

But this particular one is an idea that excites me.

So it’s not just a pen and paper sort of situation.

It’s an innovation I am working on as we speak.

So let’s cut to the chase.

When we talk circular business, we think of waste material that could be converted into value – or what we call ‘upcycling’.

But there’s a challenge here.

Noting that we don’t segregate waste in our part of the world, how do we source for a particular type of waste we are looking for?

It may mean that we rely on waste pickers (despised, bottom-of-the pyramid champions around us).

Companies such as Mr Green Africa have followed this route.

They engage waste pickers to source for them plastic wastes and in turn give them some pay for the work they do.

But there are other options too.

Picture waste material that is rounded up in sacks, heaps, drums etc…

If you’re a Nairobian, Ngong Racecourse area screams of a possible waste material to consider upcycling – sawdust.

True…it’s a choice bedding for chicken (I’ve used it for poultry very successfully).

But beyond being an animal bedding, what other uses could it find? (Especially the fine dust type?)

I stumbled into a DIY video by a Brazilian lady who seems to be doing something right to increase the value of sawdust.

She mixes it with starch and a food grade binder like polyvinyl alcohol and makes plant pots out of the stuff.

Which got me thinking…

Why hasn’t anyone thought of this?

Imagine the kitchen ware…the spoons, plates, bowls, lunchboxes we could make just from a  waste like sawdust?

But that’s not all…

Let’s zoom out of Brazil and zero in on the Indian town of Coimbatore.

(Africa can learn alot about innovation from South America and South Asia).

We find an innovative gentleman at work in his factory.

He forms some mushy stuff then deposits it in some mold then presses it on a hydraulic press to make cups, plates, lunch boxes etc.

That mushy stuff is rice husks (the waste material from rice used to run boilers in Mwea and Ahero).

He just doesn’t use rice husks…he also uses wheat waste, banana stalks etc.

His business seems to make some headway.

His products – let’s just say that they are plastic free and are biodegradable.

But to put the icing on the cake, his products are fashioned from waste – material that was otherwise condemned for the land fill.

Buy better still, material we can easily source because its available in bulk form.

And these innovations are not just confined to sawdust and rice husks.

Any agrowaste that can be converted to powder form is game.

Now to the elephant in the room…

Why am I sharing an idea I intend to work on and develop into a business? (I have already registered a business name…)

Well first I know very few people will read this article to this point.

So few eyeballs will hit this section.

Second, most of those who manage to read the whole article won’t put to practice what they’ve just engaged with.

They won’t look for ways to benefit from the circular economy (and there are many opportunities)…

They won’t roll up their sleeves and give value to the waste around them.

But lastly, even if everyone who reads this chooses to venture successfully, the market has room to accommodate us all.

So think of waste material you can source in bulk…

Sugarcane bagasse, maize cobs pineapple peels, sawdust, rice husks etc…

Put your mind into action…

What valuable products can you make out of them?

Products that meet human needs – use tools like design thinking to unearth these needs…

Build prototypes in your kitchen, backyard, bedroom… or wherever…

Show those prototypes to the world through social media channels…

Give out prelimimary samples for testing…collect feedback and act on it.

Iterate and improve… it takes time.

Make it happen.

Cheers.