Wazi Vision

In Uganda and most of Africa, eye care is very expensive and not affordable for 80% of the population. An average pair of glasses costs $150 yet the average household income is $40 per month. This makes it impossible for low income people to afford basic eye glasses to fix simple eye refractive eye problems. Likewise, globally, there are 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste, and only 9% currently is recycled. By 2050 there will be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fish. The more waste we generate, the more waste we need to dispose of. Wazi therefore recycles 1-2 Tons of plastic waste a week and turns it into affordable eye wear that is stylish, durable and affordable. If scaled globally, we could get rid of over 8 Tons of waste every week from our environment while enabling people to have access to affordable and accessible eye care.

Globally, there are 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste, and only 9% currently is recycled. By 2050 there will be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fish. In Uganda, plastic is showing up everywhere including on the country’s many agricultural fields, adversely affecting the food supply. While the Ugandan government has responded with legislation encouraging small scale collection, the problem remains pervasive and wide-scale collection has yet to be implemented in the country and across the continent.  This plastic waste problem is intersecting another big problem in Uganda, very expensive eye wear for over 4 million Ugandans affected by refractive errors.  If uncorrected, these refractive errors worsen and go ahead to affect people’s well-being, especially school going children. The World Health Organization estimates that globally 285 million people are visually impaired; 90% of whom live in low income areas. Of these, 43% have uncorrected refractive errors. Wazi sees an opportunity to not only reduce the waste problem but also improve people’s health while at it. 

Currently, Wazi targets two groups of people whose lives we are meaningfully improving.

1.Women who we call the “Wazi Tribe” who collect the plastic waste and are trained to add value to it and turn it into quality eye wear. Formerly refugees and unemployed, these women have managed to earn $150 a month at a minimum since starting work with Wazi.

2. People in low income communities in need of affordable eye wear: As a result of our work, we have successfully cut down on the cost of eye care by over 80%, providing eye wear costing between $7-20 in comparison to the $150 on the market.

Wazi Vision has developed a 3 step method of recycling plastic waste, particularly PET, LDPE and HDPE and turning it into affordable and durable eyewear. The frames made from recycled plastic are also recyclable and can be turned into other frames should the user want to dispose them off. We are currently using the following 3-step methodology:

1. Plastic collection: Through our network of women, we collect 1-2 Tons of plastic waste per week. As we scale, we believe we will have the capacity to do more. The plastic we collect is consolidated at collection centers and then transferred to our manufacturing facility for making of the frames.

2. Manufacturing: Through plastic injection molding technology, we manufacture durable and stylish frames that are then sold affordably (at least 80% of ordinary prices) to people in low income areas.

3. Distribution and upcycling: We then distribute the glasses through various channels. Old frames are also upcycled and turned into value. 

My solution is innovative because it has found a new scalable way to turn plastic waste into affordable eye wear, something that has not been done in Africa before. Currently, most frames are made from new plastic resin but not from recycled material, something that we explore. By using plastic injection molding technology, we have managed to tap into an existing technology and use it to produce something that has not been produced before with recycled plastic.

We currently use plastic injection molding technology that enables us to turn flakes from plastic waste into durable and stylish eye wear. This is an already existing technology that has been applied in the manufacture of a lot of products, including toys, plates and other plastic materials. However, all these use new resin that has been chemically produced and none have explored use of plastic waste. We therefore are using this technology to recycle plastic waste and turn it into value. 

I expect my solution to address the problem because over the last 2 years, we have actually managed to create impact within the communities that we already operate in. We currently are employing 20 women who collect the plastic waste and also support in the manufacturing process. Through them, we have recycled over 50 Tons of plastic waste and reached over 12,000 people with affordable eyewear. As such, we believe that our solution is well positioned to fully address the problem mentioned.

Currently, we are serving 12,000 people with affordable eye wear and economically empowering 20 women with dignified work. Within one year, we expect to reach 20,000 people in total and over 300,000 people with affordable eye wear in five years – with over 200 women economically empowered through plastic collection. 

Within the next one year, we hope to scale outside of Uganda into Rwanda, Kenya and the rest of the East African region. We have already started shipping eye wear to Rwanda and are now establishing partnerships to do plastic recycling within the same areas. Within 5 years, we expect to have Africa wide reach, reaching over 300,000 people and growing – ultimately recycling at least 100 Tons of plastic waste per year.

Currently, our greatest barriers are financial and technical. We need money to scale internal production, create more molds and vary designs so as to suit more people. We also need technical support in order to recycle even more types of waste plastic.

1. Financial challenges: We are currently actively seeking investment in order to scale both internally and externally

2. Technical Challenges: With investment, we will hire a technical consultant to help upskill the team on how to properly recycle more types of plastic waste.

Currently, the team is made up of 6 full time staff and 23 part-time staff. 

My team is made up of the following people:

1. Brenda Katwesigye - Co-founder and CEO

Brenda has over 5 years experience in business strategy, financial management and risk advisory previously from Deloitte, a “Big Four” firm. She is also a qualified Engineer and has an eye for market opportunity. She is hands-on with talent management and has overseen team development since Wazi's inception. 

2. Geogette Ndabukiye  - Co-founder and CMO

Geogette is the Chief Marketing Officer. She has over 7 years worth of sales and marketing experience working with major brands and organizations such as the Innovation Village in Kampala. 

3. Andreas Hellmann -  CTO

Andreas is the CTO and has over 19 years experience in materials science focusing on Plastic Recycling. 

Our Core competencies are as follows:

• Good and in-depth industry knowledge 
• Good and qualified sales team
• Strong and highly experienced advisory board with global knowledge and experience
• Strong financial experience and good financial management
• Passion for building a circular economy in East Africa

We are currently partnering with the Makerere University School of Engineering for the manufacturing of molds for all eye wear. These molds are made from recycled aluminium from old car engines. 

Our key customers for the eye wear made from recycled plastic are people in low income areas. We sell each pair of glasses for anywhere between $7 and $20 of which we have a 45% gross profit margin. 

Each product we sell is profitable and therefore we plan on using revenue from the business to stay sustainable. We however are looking for investment (Equity or debt) to fund scaling of our business across Africa.

I am applying to Solve because I believe it will help us overcome 2 major challenges. Through its prize as well as its network of potential investors, I am certain we will make a step towards raising the capital needed to scale. In addition, Solve has an extensive network of technical experts who we believe will support technically or help us connect with the best people to work with in a technical capacity.

I would like to connect with Warby Parker as well as Maui Jim to establish potential distribution partnerships for our recycled plastic eye wear. 

We will use the prize to buy more machinery and molds to be able to vary the designs we have. We will also use some of the money to scale within the region so as to increase sales, thus also increasing the amount of plastic we collect. 

We will use the prize to buy more machinery and molds to be able to vary the designs we have. We will also use some of the money to scale within the region so as to increase sales, thus also increasing the amount of plastic we collect.