Farai Pyro

Providing education and income growth for the unemployed, engaging them in collecting plastic which is then converted to diesel.

Our focus is on integrating those who have been forgotten by society, the education system, and the economy, back into society as contributing members rather than vagabonds. In many third world countries recovering economies usually get taken hostage by the educated as well as those in positions of power regardless of education. The poverty cycle ends for a few and the economies proceed without looking for ways of bringing everyone up. We see street urchins as 'Entrepreneurs on the street'; survivors who keep going even though they earn fifty cents or a dollar a day.

Our company has developed technology that can process plastic into diesel. There are parts of the process that demand very little skill and we believe this is the best way to begin bringing in the uneducated who are unemployed.

Our future work challenge involves adding value to waste and rehabilitating the forgotten in society who are illiterate and marginalized. We have already begun with employing street urchins as waste collectors. They spent the day collecting waste and add to what they earn each day. As they learn the work-reward principle we have had some drop out and others add ons. Next step is to bring them onsite for sorting waste into various groups. And as they get used to working all day for pay we will then begin with night schooling and accommodation as well as more challenging tasks in the business. We want to grow in this work challenge as we grow in business.

Many companies are taking waste plastic, turning it into reusable plastic pellets for more plastic manufacturing, or selling to China and a few local companies. We are turning plastic into diesel and we are selling our entire product in Zimbabwe. In addition, we are also employing the marginalized and rehabilitating them into society.
Our unique positioning has seen the beginning of waste segregation partnerships, clean up campaigns, and media recognition. Because we are not reselling plastic pellets, we stand a chance to make larger profits with the same amount of plastic.

Our technology allows us to convert plastic into diesel and to employ both skilled and unskilled labor. This places us in a unique position to engage the unskilled, uneducated, and unemployed people in society. Because the process is also relaxed, we can also add education to it such at that employees can gain business sense, literacy, and introduction to cutting edge technology along with money while being productive.

In this way, we can introduce advanced technology to the people who would get it last and maybe never at that. Our technology allows us to do all this while being profitable.

Our top 3 goals are:
1) Reaching out and securing the continued participation of 15 street urchins
2) Recycling 1,000 tons of post-consumer plastic into diesel by end of 2018, and in five years the annual recycled plastic will be upwards of 10,000 tons a year.
3) Creating 50 jobs for the unemployed and educated. These jobs include those for the marginalized as well for the educated. We aim for fifteen stable employees from marginalized communities by year's end.

- Become the leading waste management and renewable energy company with 45% of our work force coming from the streets, the prison system, and other stigmatized sources of employment. This would reduce the size of local governments and transform their functions since waste management is a huge department for local governments.

- Employ 45% staff from marginalized sources of labor, becoing a leader in economic inclusion and empowerment. We will reduce the cycle of street urchins living in poverty, reduce the cycle of recidivism of criminals, and add to the labor force of Zimbabwe.

Our target beneficiaries generally get left behind by the economy and technology especially in developing countries such as Zimbabwe. Someone may miss the mobile revolution while in prison. By including them in the economy as unskilled labor we already make the first step of reintegrating them. Our process allows people to be educated on the job, and to rise in company ranks. Their rising in the company will reflect their learning and embracing of the technology used at those higher levels. By securing the participation of street urchins, we also secure their education process and their access to digital technology.

We have created part time jobs for 5 people and have engaged street urchins to supply us with plastic. We have secured the continued participation of 3 urchins. Our diesel is being tested by some small consumers, with one large customer LaFarge a cement maker giving us an informal thumbs-up after taking our diesel to their procurement laboratory for quality testing. We have also begun exhibiting under the auspices of the Environmental Management Agency and have begun talks with city councils in the country.

Allen Matsika and Farai Musendo founded and presently lead the organization. They faced significant communication challenges when engaging and working in the digital economy, as Allen was US-based and Farai in Zimbabwe.

The communication challenge also stretched to the streets as street urchins do not own any form of digital communication tools. Including them in the innovation of converting plastic to diesel involves walking, meeting in person, as opposed to calling or texting them.

Our revenue model is built around companies that want to meet their corporate and social responsibly goals. They pay us to manage their plastic waste which we convert into diesel and sell. In turn, we pay other small suppliers to supply us with waste, and we do this to create employment and clean up the country. Most of our revenues come from selling diesel, such that if we take plastic for free from companies, we still turn a profit.

As our company grows this initiative will grow as well. We will partner with cities to provide accommodation, we are working with organizations to create public bins for waste segregation so the street urchins can collect plastic easily. We will partner with not-for profit organizations to educate and rehabilitate on a large scale.

We have been unable to establish the actual amount to be won in Africa. However, we know we want invest in a new plant which will process upwards of 16 tons of plastic a day. A smaller upgrade would take about $10,000. We also want to hire social workers to help with our social impact work with street urchins. And we want to work to penetrate large manufacturers who need our diesel and we believe the publicity from winning will help us do this successfully. We would also improve our marketing and customer acquisition.

Internal risk: Limited professional and big-dreamer human resources. We intend to re-educate the employees we get.

Internal risk: working with former street urchins and former prisoners can prove a challenge psychologically for the company's reputation as well the company's employees who have clean records and come from good families. We will create a community of acceptance and anonymity, that encourages all employees to become one family.

External risk: Zimbabwe's political climate. We intend to manage this by partnering with less-political government agencies such as the Environmental Management Agency.