Transforming waste materials to brick pavers - Zimbabwe

Transforming waste materials to brick pavers

Ziso Rehutano translated literally as Eye for Health is a business owned by 12 people i.e. 10 females and 2 males  and the group hails from Gokwe town ward 2 urban at Wasara Wasara Business Centre where Gokwe Town Council offered them a piece of land to operate from. The group is turning dicasrded plastic into building material by manufacturing brick pavers.

The brick paver offers the same advantage as concrete but costs less. The pavers are in two sizes i.e. big and small. Each big paver ranges from $1 to $2 of which a square meter is paved by 25 pavers costing $50 (RTGS) while the small pavers range between $1and $1.50 of which a square meter needs 30 and they cost $45. The pavers are found in 3 colours that is grey, black and red.

To date, Ziso ReHutano has assets valued at ZWL $35 000 raised through selling pavers and they have exhibited at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in 2017 and 2018. During the 2018 ZITF, they won a tender to supply 14 000 pavers to St Paul Primary School in Gokwe and in 2018, the group paved at Katema residence in Gokwe town with 1 011 pavers and supplied 650 pavers in Bomba.

They have also cleaned the whole of Gokwe town through plastics and bottle recycling indirectly saving cattle from feeding on plastics.

Key to their achievements is that; Recycling of plastic paper also minimizes breeding ground for mosquitoes and malaria infection in the town and Use of sand during moulding pavers also minimizing siltation of rivers in the surrounding areas.

Their major challenge is Inadequate production equipment which includes protective clothing, a dough mixer and moulding troughs. They hope to collaborate with Harare Institute of Technology in designing environmentally friendly technology for moulding machines and partner with Environmental Management Authority (EMA)

 

A sample of the pavers produced by the group Ziso Reutano