Less Trash, More Bricks
TEABOG LTD is proposing the turning of plastic waste into stone- like pavement blocks which can be used to build new roads, tiles and roof tops.
The company started operations in 1998 in Rivers state but formally entered into a partnership agreement with Nelplast Ghana Ltd afterwards, by Mr Temi Ogunwolu who is the MD/CEO of the company. Nelpast has machines and technology capable of processing any type of plastic waste, except PVCs. The company started its operations collecting and recycling almost 2000 kg of plastic waste from neighboring areas, laying plastic pavement blocks in its community.
The pavement blocks are made of 70% plastic waste and 30% sand. Thanks to the plastic material, compared with traditional asphalt these pavement blocks are hard to rot and last longer than cement.
Teabog/Nelplast’s work brings significant advantages:
- allows to collect and recycle the large amount of plastic waste that is abandoned in the territory generating problems for the environment and for the health of citizens;
- generates a product of great resistance that allows paving roads, towns and villages at costs lower than those incurred with traditional asphalt and reducing maintenance costs;
- allows to generate jobs for the entire production chain (collection, production, installation of blocks).
- Create a training section where youths are trained and empowered with start up capital to be able to start a mini factory where about 10 youths can be engaged.
At the Teabog/Nelplast’s factories, discarded plastic bags and other plastic detritus is shredded down to fine threads before being mixed with ordinary sand, creating a new alternative material to traditional asphalt. This kind of material needs only small quantities of binding agents and adopts the physical resilience of its plastic origins.
TEABOG LTD currently produces close to 500 blocks a day using 800
kilos of plastic waste and employs 60 workers directly. The production chain as a whole has managed to create work for 230 people. This productive capacity is too low for the demand of the national market, which expresses an interest in using these innovative blocks. The company is carrying out numerous initiatives to upgrade the plant, through new machinery, equipment and spaces, in order to expand the production of plastic blocks, to deal with the national market.
The objective of the Company is to recycle about 70% of plastics waste generated daily by the country into useful and durable products. Although the focus of the company is to recycle plastic bags, easy to be collected in the territory where they are abandoned, TEABOG LTDencourages people to collect any form of plastic waste to create the asphalt-like material. In addition to build new road networks with plastic, the company also manufactures durable roof tiles made from the same waste. They also offer technical support to other businesses in order to strengthen their recycling activities.
The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology will surely support the work of the TEABOG LTD Company in manufacturing products in Nigeria, which uses plastic waste to produce pavement blocks and other building materials. We at TEABOG LTDstrongly believes that it is high time that the Ministry launches a National Plastic Waste Management Policy to deal with the current nation-wide challenge of disposing these non-bio degradable products.
The urgent need to provide global solutions to the problem of the large amount of plastic waste that pollutes land, water and the oceans is highlighted by countless international initiatives. The Earth Day 2018 was celebrate on 22 April 2018 with the theme End Plastic Pollution. The World Environmental Day initiative, coordinated by UN Environment will also be celebrated in 2018 with the theme Beat Plastic Pollution.
In this context, the work to be carried out by TEABOG LTDin OGUN state has been properly and thoroughly assessed. It is an example of how even small, innovative and qualified companies can make a big contribution to solve global problems of the world.
From the point of view of the various companies, public administrations and environmental associations engaged in territorial development processes, Teabog/Nelplast’s work could be an incentive to build circular economy initiatives that help create new products and new innovative jobs improving the environment and people’s quality of life.