Taka-cycle

The Taka-cycle project will directly address the challenge of improving the lives of people living in urban slums in Uganda. Pollution in urban slums and ghettos across Africa is widespread due to poor waste disposal and recycling infrastructure, exacerbated by rapid population growth and increased urbanisation, which has led to other socio-economic issues such as poor living conditions and unemployment. To compensate for the lack of formal economic opportunities, informal inner city residents often turn to the informal economy; in Uganda, as in other countries worldwide, trash collection, particularly bottle collection, is a very familiar informal economy labour role.Our project will transform the economic potential of underserved communities by implementing a circular economy model that deploys disruptive manufacturing technology that can convert waste into productive products. We will leverage existing and new technologies to design a technical solution whereby locally sourced plastics can be recycled locally using a mobile manufacturing facility that will be able to convert plastics into useful products such as solar roof tiles which can then either be sold in domestic markets or international ones. We will devise a commercial model that leverages existing local supply chains, both in terms of materials and labour; for example, informal trash collectors can be brought into the formal economy by acting as suppliers of material. Locals can become operators of the mobile manufacturing machines, whilst others can be responsible for the sale of products.

The aim of the project is thus to improve the economic and environmental conditions of informal settlements, which can lead to better working conditions and capacity building within local communities. There will also be a gender and social inclusion emphasis to ensure all marginalised groups are considered.

Within the project there will be four stages. The first is context research where the research methodology will be defined, market research and data collection will be undertaken. The second is Stakeholder Engagement where local stakeholders will have the opportunity to input into the technical and commercial design process and site assessments will be carried out. The third stage is Design and Specifications where the technical solution and commercial model will be formulated and iteratively improved upon based on stakeholder feedback. The final stage is to devise the commercial and scalability model that can see the technical solution become actionable and used.