Problem statement
Plastic containers are found almost everywhere on the planet Earth. Information over BBC in August 2018 reports that only about 10% of the plastics that have been produced Worldwide have been recycled and that there are tons of plastics at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean forming plastic-mountains thereby narrowing the Ocean bed. Many countries now are imposing strong sanctions on plastic production but all these sanctions won’t solve the problem of the plastics that have already been produced. A majority of both industrial and domestic packaging in our markets or even most products that are produced come in plastic containers. The problem about plastics is so pertinent because plastics are non-biodegradable and can remain buried for centuries without changing as compared to organic and biodegradable products.
Why microbes don’t eat plastic
The process of making plastic creates gigantic molecules with an exceptionally strong carbon-carbon bond that does not occur in nature. How gigantic? The atomic weight of a single water molecule is 18; that of a single plastic molecule is typically more than 10,000. Microorganisms cannot eat plastic, or if they can, it will take them too much efforts.
Almost all household buy soft drinks, mineral water, body lotions, vegetable oil and others on a daily or weekly basis and all come in plastic containers and most of the times all these products and other goods we buy from our markets are packaged in plastic bags, which end up accumulating in homes and communities. Plastic materials have a very long half-life of several hundreds to thousands of years making it very difficult to dispose of since they don’t decompose like our organic products. Most of the times when we move around our cities and communities, we see plastic containers everywhere leading environmental pollution and other series of detrimental effects to the environment like when it accumulate in rivers, it blocks normal water channels thereby causing flooding and increasing breeding ground for mosquitoes and also increase the spread of Typhoid fever and Cholera. The places most affected by this problem are major cities where all sorts of plastic stuffs are being sold and bought daily with no proper disposable means, these plastic containers are being stocked in houses and eventually thrown in nearby bushes and gutters and when rain falls these plastics are gradually swept down into rivers, lakes, seas and end up at the bottom of the Ocean. In most of our cities, people pick the clean plastic containers and refill them with water, fried groundnut, “folere” and others stuffs to sell along the streets but after consumption of these products, the containers still return to the community and the cycle continues.
The Solution
Cleaning plastics from our communities thereby creating environmental friendly communities free of diseases propagated by flooding and contaminated water like cholera, typhoid fever and others.
Designing products out of sand and plastics, which are present everywhere in our communities hence cost of production will be cheaper and the roofing tiles, paving blocks, and building blocks will be readily available and affordable or every one.
Producing a different brand of roofing tiles, paving blocks and building blocks with lighter weight compared to that made from sand and cement and very resistant to degradation.
Providing employment to underserved people in our communities and even to those in our communities who haven’t been able to go to school and have no job experience by employing them to collect the containers and supply them to us.
Producing roofing tiles, paving blocks, and building blocks which even after 100 years, no maintenance work will be needed on them and even grasses won’t be able to grow on since plastics don’t absorb water.
Value Proposition
With our roofing tiles, paving blocks, and building blocks made from plastics and sand, we are not selling the products itself, we are rather selling clean cities devoid of plastics wastes to our customers. Everyone likes to see their cities clean, bushes devoid of plastics and river bangs clear from plastics which block river channels causing flooding.
Roofing tiles reflect sun raise there by normalizing room temperature and hence houses roofed with my product won’t need air conditioner or fans to normalize room temperature.
We sell to our customers taste, and designs and a new sensation to construction to our customers. Our designs are customer oriented, and our customers have a variety of colors for their roofing tiles compared to the classics in the markets.
Our customers have the design of roofs they want with reduced prices compared to roofing tiles made from sand and cement and of high quality and lighter weight.
Accidents are evident in any construction sites even though we do not hope for them. With our roofing tiles, paving blocks and building blocks made from plastics and sand, even when they fall from a height, they do not crack or shatter they simply bounce off and hence there is no wastage of resources.
Sand and cement when exposed to water for a very long time, water will turn to infiltrate and lichen other plants like the moss and fern plant will start growing on the surface of the roof or grow on the pavement made with the sand and cement paving blocks. With our roofing tiles, paving blocks and building blocks made from plastic and sand, plastic is totally water impermeable hence even if exposed to water for hundreds of years, nothing will develop or grow on them.
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