Hope Mwanake
Hope Wakio Mwanake (born 1988) is a Kenyan entrepreneur and scientist. She is regarded as one of the emerging young entrepreneurs from Africa. In December 2019, she made headlines for her efforts in building houses with abandoned plastic bottles to eradicate plastic pollution in Kenya. She initially pursued her career as a social entrepreneur before becoming a scientist. She is the co-founder of Trace Kenya, a community based organisation which works jointly with youngsters in addressing issues related to solid waste management. Trace Kenya was established in the Central town of Kenya in Gilgil to manage and maintain waste disposals.
Quotes
[edit]- “We were just dumping all the plastic in the landfill. It didn’t make sense. We knew there had to be a better way, We wanted to do something with all this plastic waste, and after a lot of brainstorming, research and experimenting, we came up with a value-added product with market demand that would also help to reduce all this plastic in the environment.”
- “We examined the properties of plastic and glass, and then we literally cooked empty shampoo and vegetable bottles in a big drum and mixed the molten polymer with sand crushed from glass waste, it looked like a strange porridge, but once placed in moulds and cooled, we found we had a very strong and durable product.”
- Unlike in Western countries where labelling a product as ‘eco-friendly’ is considered a positive by consumers and it is quickly snapped up, in Kenya it can be seen as a negative … as if the product is of lower quality, that view is slowly changing, but it is taking time. We know there is a market. We just have to reach it.”
