Concept Loop

Pakistan produces more than 3.3 million tons of plastic waste annually. Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and our base of operations, ranks first in waste generation. 

Pakistan’s plastic crisis can be attributed to poor government infrastructure for waste management, whereby the majority of the low value waste does not reach final disposal sites. Instead, it is either burned and/or dumped on roads, vacant lots, city drains, and sewers, threatening the health and wellbeing of the general population. 

This is mostly low value waste that has no existing supply chain. The kabadiwalas (scavengers) also currently do not pick this waste as it is hard to recycle and has low demand. People who do utilize this, use it as toxic fuel or burn it for heat which is very harmful and again contributes to a lot of health issues.

The issue of plastic pollution is a symptom of a much larger social issue of the take-make-waste system.  Our project intends to make responsible and sustainable consumption possible by recycling the low value plastic waste into building materials and lifestyle products. By redirecting waste from landfills and waterways, it seeks to move from a consumerist, linear economy toward a responsible, closed loop. 

We are giving this low value plastic waste a second life, by converting it into hybrid pavers, blocks and sheets. The pavers we manufacture have about 25% plastic waste content in them, which we offset with aggregate. Here we are utilizing plastic that has no second life and is hardly picked up or utilized elsewhere. 

The sheets are also made from the same low value plastic waste. These can be used outdoors, as these are waterproof, rot proof and termite proof. We make these products with our proprietary technology. And we match and further improve their unit economics with existing products in the market to make these within the reach of the masses. 

Our solution would be serving the wider community of Karachi that has a population between 20-30 million and generates daily waste of 16,500 tons (Pakistan - Waste Management (trade.gov)). Communities that live within close proximities where this waste is burnt or openly dumped, affecting the environment and the health conditions of those people. This waste also leeches into our soil and groundwater affecting other organisms and species. 

Secondly, we will be serving the kabadiwalas who would be given formal employment for collecting this waste, creating an economic value for them and us.

We are helping businesses move towards circularity in a sustainable way. We are partnering with corporations that have substantial waste streams and help them use their plastic waste in a circular way of value addition.

Our main focus is to manufacture building materials and products out of both post-industrialist and post-consumer waste. These have a mass market demand. We are targeting about 1% of the local building material market for pavers and sheets, which are our key products. Hence, we are also serving people who want to build with affordable and sustainable solutions as this market is currently underserved. 

The issue of plastic waste is something that affects us all as individuals, directly and indirectly. Just across our head office there is this water drainage canal that is usually filled and choked with plastic waste which affects the water drainage system within the area. 

Both our co-founders are directly involved in serving the communities affected by this issue. Dabeer Hemani is an Architect based in Karachi with a 10-year experience leading an architectural design studio. His work design typology includes residential, commercial and educational among others dealing with a wide range of projects and clientele. Working over the years he has noticed that there is this large amount of plastic that is generated as waste, and on the other hand there is a lack of sustainable and affordable local building materials that are available in the market. Along with the Concept Loop team he is working on solving both these pertinent issues with the solution we propose, crossing two hurdles with one leap. 

Ali Naqi is a digital-native entrepreneur in the business community of Karachi, Pakistan, where he is the Co-founder of Concept Loop. His vision is to contribute to a sustainable and carbon-free Pakistan through this initiative. Ali is committed to giving back to his community and the country at large. Having an extensive background in finance, he is bringing this creative solution to commercial realization through optimization. 

Concept Loop's founding team also includes Dr. Fatima Hafsa and Rafay Qazi. Fatima is a sustainability scientist and material engineer with 7 years of experience in plastics sustainability. Rafay, the product champion, is experienced in climate offsetting construction design with firsthand experience in recycled material composition. 

Our solution involves directly working with the informal kabadiwalas system, which consists of people from low-income households collecting waste material and selling it to generate income. By mapping their network, we will connect with the players involved and offer them a reasonable price for their raw materials and ensure a reliable and steady supply for our products. We also plan to create some formal channels of tracking and collecting sorted waste from them, eventually working towards making the current system a lot more efficient.

Due to Dabeer's background in the architecture and building sector and his prior connections in the industry, we are also connected to a network of 2,200+ architects who are one of the end users of our products. We are also collaborating with schools, and firms within the corporate sector to collect their waste and make products out of that for them. Additionally, where required, we will be providing training and creating awareness regarding the cause we are working towards.

The issue with plastic waste affects us all at large. Our solution affects people both directly and indirectly. Until now based on our environmental impact we have indirectly served about 1648+ lives. 

Technical Expertise and Mentorship

We want to onboard consultants, such as people from construction, architecture, tech, and design industries to continuously work on the quality and usability of our products. We have also identified the need to onboard a team of consultants to help train our teams and improve our research and development department. 

Legal and Market Barriers

We want help with getting more certifications for our products. Another challenge is getting more individual users come on board as initial users. We also need support with increasing our network within global markets, our product is quite popular and well received in our existing local networks.

Funding Needs

The amount will be utilized to enhance our tech, improve our machinery, invest in the research and development of our products, secure patents, enhance production capacities, consolidate the business, and invest in marketing. 

We take low value post-consumer and post industrialist plastic waste from industries, institutions and informal kabadiwalas, process that through our proprietary technology and make building materials and other products out of it.  

We add our processed and crushed low value plastic waste as an aggregate into a concrete mix to make our core products. This solves the problem of extending the life of that low value plastic waste from 30 minutes to 30 years. And secondly, we are offsetting the aggregate/natural materials which are degrading at a very high rate within our local context.

We are bringing green, high-quality, and affordable products into the market, for which there is a lack in the market. Based on the UN SDGs and the pledges given by various major players, we understand there is a lot of space in all markets for adoption of sustainable products/services. 

Our competitors are the existing players and alternative materials for our product in the market. None of the current options offer a sustainable and climate friendly material range to choose from, neither there is a measurable carbon offset to them.

We are also focused specifically on building materials and also have strong connections with the architecture and building sector in Pakistan.

With our team’s background in architecture and construction, we identified a rising need for market-competitive local building materials and a heightened focus on green materials.

Each paver offsets around 0.5kg of plastic waste while a 36"x36" sheet offsets between 8-10kg of plastic waste. Currently, we have recycled about 15,000 kgs of plastic waste which has saved about 40,000lbs of carbon emissions going into the environment, and this number is projected to grow. This amounts to carbon sequestration equivalent to 800 mature trees. These calculations have been done with the help of the Circular Initiative GHG calculator.

We aim to offset 20,000 Tonnes plastic waste in the next five years and 50,000 Tonnes by year ten cumulatively as per our business plan.

We are partnering with corporations that have substantial waste streams and help them use their plastic waste in a circular way of value addition. Hence, they can market a positive image by reducing their carbon footprints using our solution. We are in talks with several MNCs and a cola company. Also, in the MOU signing process with Mondelez Pakistan and Shan Foods, and contracts to be signed with Shell and Habib Sugar Mills.

Our impact is most closely related to the amount of plastic offset, amount of carbon offset, and sustainable economic growth of kabadiwalas. We track the plastic impact, by monitoring the amount of plastic waste we use for paver production via a regular log of material input and yield. We measure our carbon impact through carbon emission reports from the construction industry.  We track production activities that contribute to emissions such as fuel used for power, emissions from utility, emissions from transportations. We measure sustainable economic activity through our team’s, partners’, and kabadiwalas' feedback. We track demographics, work conditions, fair market wages, and their satisfaction to identify need for improvement and our overall impact.

Impact indicators according to the UN SGDs we are aligned with:

SDG 6: Clean Water & Sanitation (6.3)

Our project will improve Karachi’s water quality as we redirect plastic waste from its groundwater systems, drains, sewers, canal waters, streams, and the Arabian Sea. This will be tracked via the amount of plastic waste repurposed for our products.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth (8.2, 8.3, 8.5 & 8.8)

We will offer the kabadis a decent price for their raw materials and encourage women and other minorities to join this network. We will track this via the number, sex, and ethnicity of our vendors and the pricing of our deals compared to the market rate.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities (11.6)

Our construction materials will create green, resilient buildings, using local waste. This will reduce the city’s environmental impact by handling its waste. We will track this via the amount of carbon and plastic waste offset by our products.  

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production (12.1, 12.2, 12.5, 12.6 & 12.7)

Our plan is to partner with organizations, use their waste for our products, and let them use this for their positive CSR image, hence promoting a circular economy. We will track this via the number of partners, and the amount of their waste used.

SDG 13: Climate Action (13.3)

We are collaborating with schools and universities to collect their waste and conduct awareness sessions regarding the impact of climate change and our solutions. We will track this via the number of LOIs we sign with these educational institutions. 

SDG 14: Life Below Water (14.1)

By redirecting plastic waste that could end up in the city’s water bodies, we will reduce marine pollution from land-based activities. This will be tracked via the amount of plastic waste repurposed for our products.

SDG 14: Life on Land (15.1)

By stopping dumping into the ground, we shall be addressing the problems of plastic waste accumulation into landfills. This will also be tracked via the amount of plastic waste repurposed for our products.

Our solution aims to maximize the positive impact of both the built and unbuilt environments and those inhabiting them by reducing plastic waste leaking into the environment. The overarching goal and the outcome of our solution implemented will be that the construction industry will have a viable, local and sustainable product line for carbon negative building materials. Houses, offices and other buildings will be made by using these projects and will help the construction sector achieve its environmental goals. The output of the solution shall be plastic-concrete hybrid pavers, different kinds of building sheets and partitioning boards that will be made from using low value plastic waste processed locally using our proprietary technology. The process will include, setting up scalable units closer to regions that are major producers of low value plastic waste and partnering with businesses looking for a solution for such plastics. Additionally, we are partnering with existing scavengers (kabadiwalas) and improving their working conditions while formalizing a currently non existing supply chain and collection of such plastics. The theory of change has been tested and validated in countries in the region including India, Vietnam, Thailand among others. Similar solutions have improved the livelihoods of waste pickers, provided green solutions for building low-income housing and also given an economical way of increasing the life cycle of this packaging from 30 minutes up to 30 years.

We have conducted about 200+ experiments at various capacities using different methods, to polish our solution and finalize the technology that we are currently using for our production processes. 

We use a recycling extrusion system, which gives us a couple of different production possibilities. Using this system, along multiple additives we transform solid plastic waste into a granular or mouldable state and ultimately into a product of choice such as pavers or sheets. 

This technology has existed for a long time and most recycling plants use it within our context, but we have tweaked the conventional process to accommodate the hard to recycle plastics such as Multi-layered Packaging. Also, as this is a familiar technology within our context, it is not too complex to understand by most machine operators and manufacturers, it is also easy to replicate and is controlled in its cost. We keep modifying our equipment to increase our daily yield and overall sustainability through: 

1) Heating and material sensors to increase the efficiency of our process. 

2) Solar generators to ensure that the process is 100% renewable energy powered.

We also plan to partner with kabardiwala organizations to use existing mobile apps (such as debris tracker) for waste data collection. This will help the global community as well as help us make evidence-based decisions on location for the next micro factory.

We want to encourage women and other minority groups within the workforce to join us, to provide them equal and dignified opportunities to work, and a platform to use and improve their skill. The primary goal of this business is to channel sustainable development practices by deploying environmentally friendly business strategies that would aid all stakeholders involved in the ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) space.

Concept Loop aims to have GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) policies as part of its anchoring values. Our current founding team is 25% led by women and we aim to increase women's workforce in both leadership positions and the overall workforce as we continue to grow. There is a strict no discriminatory hiring policy, which ensures equal opportunities and by taking feedback from women and socially marginalised communities, especially minority representatives we keep on making the GESI framework stronger.

To ensure our products are accessible to female professionals, we plan to supply to vendors in areas accessible to them and also keep them online and via delivery for sampling. Our supply chain preferences will encourage women-led businesses since they have a data-based track record of being more professional.

GESI risks might include hiring underage workers as waste pickers, having discriminatory hiring policies, and exposing the workforce to health and safety hazards. To mitigate this, strict policies are to be enforced on hiring only legally adult workers and making sure no gender or other discrimination is done while onboarding. To ensure safety, strict protocols are to be enacted and insurance is to be provided to all workforce members.

We want to set an example out in the manufacturing sector on how to work in an inclusive manner. 

We take low value post-industrialist and post-consumer plastic waste from industries, institutions, homes, schools and informal kabadiwalas, take that through our proprietary process and make building materials and other products out of it. These we are selling to both B2B and B2C segments. For our B2B customers we are looking at Corporates, Institutions and Governments and for our the B2C customers will be Architects, Retailers and other end users to our direct channels like web portals.

We are targeting about 1% of the local building material market for pavers and sheets, which are our key products, that is about USD 9.1million per annum. This is derived from the annual GDP of Pakistan, which is USD 360 Billion as of FY2022, out of which 5% is the construction industry’s share (approx USD 18.2 Billion, i.e. our TAM). Out of this, we estimate 5% to be our SAM (i.e. flooring and paving sub-industries) making SAM = USD 911 Million per year. (Source: Pakistan Economic Survey, 2022).

To cover our financial goals we need to have certain short-term and long-term plans.

For our short-term plans we are focused on the B2B segment, as they can provide us with large orders and willingness to experiment with our products. We are aiming for companies that produce plastic waste and procuring this waste from them at almost no to low cost. We are also arranging to do buy back agreements with them and distribute our stock to them directly. This would almost cover up half of our production capacity amount for next year. We only need to sell half of it to the market. We are also working with certain corporate customers that have their extended producer responsibilities that they need to cover up. For these they want to share the capital investment for initiatives they want to do with us, at the same time helping them with their Extended Producer Responsibility mandate.

Our long-term plans include stocking our products with large vendors and resellers for the mass market and also made available through our direct channels like web portals for the B2C segment. For this we will leverage our connection with the architecture fraternity and building sector, we are also using social media and product exhibitions to extend our reach to direct consumers as well. Also aim to do sampling for our initial clients and customers for their projects, where our products could be tested. 

We have about 30+ pre orders, worth PKR 10 million, also a LOI quantum worth PKR 976 million. For post-industrial waste, we have partnered with Mondelez for a buy-back program, such that Mondelez will provide MLP waste in exchange for recycled pavers. Currently, we have orders from Shell, Mondelez, Shan Foods and Artistic Milliner to install recycled plastic pavers in areas ranging from 2,000-100,000 sqft (each) at their respective production and distribution sites in Karachi. We also have an agreement with Modulus Tech, a sustainable modular housing startup, for materials (pavers and sheets) worth $3.5 million just for 2023.

As entrepreneurs, our founders have invested $35,000 from their personal funds to date. In 2021, we received a concessional loan of PKR 15 million from Karandaaz Pakistan at a subsidized rate 1% per annum, as winners of the Innovation Challenge Fund (Green) on Plastic Waste Management in Pakistan. We also won PKR 1 million from Shell Tameer for being a promising startup in an emerging economy. And we are currently also exploring equity-based financing for our project.