As a charity, we're incredibly grateful at Eco Brixs to the organisations and people who support our work. Through their generous donations, we're able to recycle plastic, create green jobs, and gradually grow our circular model to have more and more impact.
Alongside the support from our donors, we also focus on creating our own revenue streams, with the goal long-term of eventually making Eco Brixs financially self-sufficient. We do this in a variety of ways, but one of the most innovative and exciting methods we use is through the creation and sale of recycled products.
This video was filmed in our recycling factory at our HQ in Masaka, which is where we make these recycled products. We use machinery to turn typical plastic waste into new products that people and organisations value.
Andy, our CEO, provides an overview of the following:
Plastic Flake: The majority of plastic that we buy from the community is PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastic (eg. bottles and food containers). We turn this into plastic flakes, which are small granules of plastic that can be easily recycled into new products. We tend to sell the majority of these to other businesses, either in Uganda or internationally, who then produce their own bottles or food packaging from the plastic flakes.
Eco-Products: The other types of plastic we buy from our Plastic Collectors is HDPE (High-density Polyethylene) plastic and PP (Polypropylene) plastic, which is better known as 'Hard Plastics'. We recycle this into a range of 18 innovative products that we sell in-house. Like the PET plastic, we turn it into flake but then use machinery (such as injection moulds) to make new Eco-Products. We sell these to both people and businesses in Uganda.
These Eco-Products include:
Large Support Beams
Lumber Planks
Benches and Garden Funiture
Picnic benches
Fence posts
Fishing Boats
These products can be customised in shape and come in a variety of colours. Plus, they are stronger, more durable and cheaper than their timber counterparts, and of course, are more environmentally friendly!
You can explore our full catalogue of Eco-Products here.
Together, the sale of these recycled items allows us to continue our work (and impact). This is because we use the generated income from recycled products to buy more plastic waste from the community.
We'll then recycle this plastic into new products (as above), and repeat the cycle again and again, which allows us to keep cleaning up plastic waste and creating green job opportunities!
So through the creation and sale of both plastic flake and Eco-Products, we're generating income for Eco Brixs. But more importantly, we're creating more environmental and economic impact in Uganda!
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