Mr. Green Africa, a Kenyan plastics recycling pioneer, has been boosted by a major round of investment by impact driven investors and key industry stakeholders to scale its business model across the continent.
Mr Green Africa is a circular recycling business that has developed a technology-driven plastics collection model that enables waste collection at the source, integrating informal waste workers, micro-entrepreneurs and consumers into a formal value chain.
Mr Green Africa works closely with brand owners to realize their sustainable packaging goals by accessing ethically sourced, locally produced Post Consumer Recyclize (PCR). Its mission is to turn waste into value, thereby integrating and strengthening a localised circular economy in emerging markets.
Mr. Green Africa previously raised an undisclosed amount of funding from DOB Equity, a Dutch family-backed impact investor in East Africa, and Global Innovation Fund, in partnership with Unilever, and it has now secured a further round.
DOB Equity and Global Innovation Fund are returning investors, and are now also joined by Water Unite Impact Investment Vehicle, a partnership between Water Unite and Wellers Impact; the BESTSELLER Foundation; AlphaMundi Group; Minderoo; and DOW.
This investment will allow Mr. Green Africa to build on its success and scale its business model. By improving the output quality of its recycled plastics to a food-grade standard and significantly increasing the capacity, Mr. Green Africa will contribute to a broader circular plastics economy.
The company who started off their operations at Nairobi Garage Westlands, plans to create a new sourcing stream by integrating consumers from all income brackets incentivized to deposit plastic waste back into the MGA collection systems, and also plans to increase the capacity of the production plant to process 15-20,000 MT of plastic waste in the East Africa region.
“We are delighted to bring together and align such diverse groups of partners and investors to join this journey of Mr. Green Africa. It’s a testament to the authenticity of the vision and purpose of what the company and its people stand for,” said Keiran Smith, co-founder and CEO of Mr. Green Africa.
Waste management is a huge issue in Africa and Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is no exception. This is highly contributed by Urbanization and the growing middle class.
In most cases plastic is either burned, or ends up on the streets or on a landfill. Today it is approximated that Nairobi produces around 2,400 tonnes a day, of which roughly 60% is collected and only around 10% recycled. The rest is dumped illegally or burned.
A growing number of international consumer goods companies including Unilever have pledged to reduce the impact of their plastic packaging on the environment, by working towards using 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025 or earlier. In Kenya only 10 per cent of plastic waste is currently being recycled.
In 2018, Unilever East Africa partnered with Mr. Green Africa to scale up its current plastic recycling program in Primary schools. Dubbed U-Turn, the campaign gets people to change their behavior on how they handle plastics to curb pollution.
The two firms also called on manufacturers, stakeholders and the public in general to join the gospel of plastic recycling by better managing waste.
