Rwanda’s Toto Safi and Nigeria’s Well of Science Among Finalists In £1.1m Afri-Plastics Challenge

South Africa: Ten (10) teams of innovators from Sub-Saharan Africa have been named finalists in the Afri-Plastics Challenge with plastic-reduction solutions. Each will receive £75 000 to invest in and develop their respective ideas.

The winner will receive £750 000 as the first prize in January 2023, with the runner-up receiving £250 000 and third place receiving £100 000.

They include initiatives to reduce the use of single-use disposable diapers. Toto Safi, a Rwandan solution, is one such project.

Toto Safi's app-based service helps to reduce the use of single-use disposable diapers, which are a major source of land and marine pollution.

Parents will be able to receive a fresh bundle of clean and sterile cloth diapers at a low cost through this app. ShoppersBag, a Nigerian solution by Well of Science, is another option.

ShoppersBags are reusable, recyclable, and biodegradable bags that allow users to be compensated or earn rewards for each use.

South Africa's Regenize and Uganda's Industrial Research Institute are also in the running. Regenize's Zero-Waste Spaza can be plugged into any existing spaza shop to transform it into a zero-waste shop where customers can shop without producing plastic waste. Customers must bring their own containers in order to purchase goods supplied by Regenize and stored in secure food-safe containers. Customers will be able to live a healthier lifestyle as well as reduce plastic waste.

As an alternative product to the polythene bag, the Uganda Industrial Research Institute manufactures biodegradable and biocompostable paper packaging bags from long wasted agricultural fibres such as banana pseudo-stem, sugarcane bagasse, all cereal crop straw (rice, maize, and wheat), cotton waste/rags, and pineapple crowns, among others.

The Afri-Plastics Challenge, organised by innovation experts Challenge Works and funded by the Canadian government, rewards the most promising Sub-Saharan African innovators working in the circular economy with funds to develop solutions to the continent's and its marine environment's worrying rise in plastic pollution.

Canada is a global leader due to its ongoing efforts to champion the Ocean Plastics Charter and membership in the Ocean Decade Alliance. Canada is uniquely positioned to lead in reducing plastic pollution and protecting ocean health because it has the world's longest coastline and one-quarter of the world's fresh water.

The government will continue to collaborate with partners at home and abroad to protect the environment and ensure a healthy future for future generations.

Tackling plastic pollution through three prize strands, the finalists in the second strand, Creating Solutions, announced today, are being supported to develop innovative products that specifically reduce the volumes of plastic entering the value chain through innovative and novel approaches.

Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of International Development, Government of Canada, said: “We must urgently reduce plastic usage worldwide. It's clear that increasing pollution levels are devastating our shared environment. The finalists announced today in the Afri-Plastics Challenge demonstrate innovation and African entrepreneurialism at its best. I can't wait to see how the innovative solutions proposed will reduce plastic usage and benefit the whole world.”

Constance Agyeman, Director of International Development, Challenge Works, said: “Eradication of the plastic waste menace in the environment is critical to ensure resilient, sustainable communities. This calls for new solutions that go beyond traditional thinking. Today’s finalists are leading the way in dramatically reducing the volumes of plastic entering the economy to bear down on the avalanche of plastic waste that is engulfing Africa and its precious marine ecosystems.”

Each finalist has already received a £25 000 grant to develop their ideas after making it through the semi-final round. The ten finalists will now each receive a further £75 000 to advance and implement their solutions aimed at reducing plastic usage in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The successful community-centred products and services have demonstrated a long-term approach to reducing reliance on plastic while also promoting women's and girls' empowerment.

The goal of the Afri-Plastics Challenge is for the development of the innovators' solutions to encourage the creation of new, sustainable local enterprises, bring economic opportunity to communities, and create solutions that can be applied across Sub-Saharan Africa and around the world.

To find out more about the Afri-Plastics Challenge and the 10 finalists in the Creating Solutions strand, please visit afri-plastics.challenges.org.