March 12, 2024 • 10 mins
Today we share a piece of the amazing works of Nzambi Matee when it comes to sustainability, recycling and environmentalism.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff
I've Never Told you production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to Feminists around the World, where we celebrate activists, advocates,
all those who are creating differences and making so much change,
and we want to get flowers while they're still with us. Annie,
As in fact, we actually got a shout out from
someone that we may have to come back to and
hopefully maybe we can do an interview. I'll tell you
(00:39):
off Mike, but yeah, we got someone who actually caught us.
They're like, I saw my name and I was like.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What, Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I meant to tell you this off Mike, but I
just remembered it as we're talking about it. Because that's
one of the things that we want to do is
celebrate who they are and what they've been doing while
they're still with us, and not wait till it's too late.
Ever happened way too much where people do not get
their flowers when they deserve it. We want them to
know we appreciate them. And that's kind of the point
(01:07):
of the segment in itself. And today we are talking
about an amazing activist, an entrepreneur who's been working to
change waste into something sustainable, and that activist and entrepreneur
is in zombie. Mati from Nairobi. Mati is an engineer,
(01:27):
an innovator, and environmentalist and so much more. She has
already accomplished so much within her thirty one years and
continues to change the world with her innovative ideas.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And apparently she's got a lot of them. This is
just one of them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
All the people who know her or have interviewed her
are like, yeah, she's got ideas.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So I'm really excited to find out if there's more
that we see. But yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So. After being trained in engineering in biochemistry, Mati worked
as an engineer in the Kenyan oil industry, but soon
left her job in twenty seventeen to start her new venture.
She told interviewers quote, in twenty seventeen, I decided to
quit my formal job as a data analyst in order
to focus on sustainability and waste management. Using material engineering
(02:13):
and science background, I was like, how can we figure
it out a way to convert this plastic waste into
something useful. It was from here when I decided to
enter building space, because building is a basic human need.
Fast forward. That's how we ended up converting plastic into
building blocks.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And with that she founded the company Jingay Makers, which
has become an innovative solution to the plastic that has
been wasted and no longer in use. From their site
Jingay dot co dotke quote, Jingay constitutes a community focused
enterprise driving to cater to the requisite for sustainable and
economically viable alternative building materials within Kenya and the broader continent.
(02:54):
Our inaugural creations are innovations formulated from recycled plastics utilized
to fabricate plastic paid blocks, plastic paving tiles, and plastic
manhole covers. Our Assembly conceptualize the inception of a plastics
accumulation enterprise which was intended to categorize and vent plastic
waste to other recycling corporations. The realization that we were
(03:15):
amassing waste more rapidly than it could be absorbed by
the recycling entities led to a reevaluation and alteration of
our original concept. Consequently, a resolution was reached to augment
the value of these plastics. Thus the idea to create
alternative construction products was conceived.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, and it goes on talking about their mission, saying
our mission is to devise innovative solutions for the development
of esthetic, pleasing and sustainable alternative construction products, carrying not
only to Kenya, but also extending our reach across the
African continent. Our objective is the supply sustainable and cost
effective alternative building materials while simultaneously generating employment opportunities for
(03:56):
the youth and women. We are committed to fostering a
culture of cycling and upcycling within Kenya and throughout Africa,
contributing to environmental preservation and stateability. And they explain how
it's done, saying, we accumulate the plastic waste and utilizing
the state of the art technologies, we process it amalgamating
the recycled plastic with sand to formulate a mixture. This
(04:17):
concoction is then molded to fabricate our diverse products. Jinay
Makers has carved a unique position as a pioneering manufacturer
in delivering aesthetically pleasing, economically accessible, and environmentally sustainable alternative
plastic building materials, and.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
In different interviews she has explained why she has dedicated
her life to doing this quote, plastic waste is not
just a Kenya problem. But it's a worldwide problem. Here
in Nairobi, we generate about five hundred metric tons of
plastic waste every single day, and only a fraction of
that is recycled. We decided what more can we do
instead of just sitting in the sidelines and complaining. Essentially,
(04:54):
companies have to pay to dispose the waste, so we
solve their problem. That waste essentially comes for free.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And she explains that she feels plastic is misused and misunderstood. Quote,
it is absurd that we still have this problem of
providing decent shelter, a basic human need. Plastic is a
material that is misused and misunderstood. The potential is enormous,
but this afterlife can be disastrous. We thought of this
amazing material, but we didn't think of the repercussions. We
(05:22):
didn't think about the afterlife, especially of single use plastics.
And in twenty twenty, she was named Young Champion of
the Earth Winner at the United Nations Environment Program or
un EP, and she was able to get funding and
mentoring through the program.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And here's a bit from the un EP website about
her work. Quote. Through trial and error, she and her
team learned that some plastics bind together better than others.
Her project was given a boost when Mattee won a
scholarship to attend a social entrepreneurship training program in the
United States of America. With her Pavor samples packed in
her luggage. She used the material labs in the University
(05:57):
of Colorado, Boulder to further test and refine the ratios
of sand to plastic.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right, and here's a quote from lifegate dot com about
the process of the plastic waste recycling her company does.
Quote in Zombie explains that several stages to Jingay's mechanical
plastic waste recycling. She said, the first stage involves preprocessing,
which includes the sourcing and collection of plastic waste. The
waste is clean, shredded, and separated into different plastic types. Secondly,
(06:22):
the processing stage involves the mixing of waste plastic with
sand and glass. However, it isn't at this process when
they add color in the process. Meanwhile, the final stage
involves a hydraulic press, which includes breaking the mixture into
different shapes and sizes depending on whatever block you're making.
And then the materials are moved to the cooling bath
where they reduce the temperatures to room temperature, and once
(06:44):
the blocks are cool, they are ready to be laid.
And Zombie said the paving blocks are stronger and cheaper
than concrete blocks, and that's what the company specializes in
making high quality sustainable pavers and construction breaks from use plastic.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
These bricks, though, were not her original intention. In euronews
dot com, they write quote, creating building blocks out of
plastic wasn't in in Zombie's business plan. She was initially
going to open a plastics collection company that would sort
and sell plastic waste to other recycling companies. How their
in Zombie realized Jingay was collecting waste faster than the
(07:20):
recycling companies could uptake, so she decided to use her
engineering background and pivot to create sustainable, alternative construction products.
Now Jingay has become a trailblazer in the industry and
her work is reaching beyond just the sustainability part. From
lifegate dot com article, they quote Matie saying our company
(07:43):
employees marginalized individuals, especially women in youth. Jingay Makers is
empowering communities and offering hope for a better future. This
combination of environmental and social sustainability makes Jingay Makers stand
out as a true pioneer in the world of social entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, she has become an inspiration for so many and
as of twenty twenty three, her company has done so
well that the demand is exceeding the supply and according
to that eunews dot com, their work keeps expanding and
helping so many quote. Jingay also plans to help the
community by promoting upcycling, recycling culture and providing jobs for
young people across the African continent. I'm happy to say
(08:22):
we have one hundred and twenty three families benefiting from
this process, and Zombie says. Looking long term, the young
entrepreneur plans to use her skills to train the next generation.
She hopes this kind of recycling, turning plastic waste into
viral resources is a model every country will eventually adopt.
And honestly, I was looking at their site.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
They look good. I want some of those.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I want some of those who put into my property
because they look like nice and they've done a really
great job. Of course, this is just one of the
things that she is doing and she's being recognized for.
Her award came in twenty twenty I can't imagine that's
the last award, but I haven't found anything else. I'm
sure we'll be hearing more about the company what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I hope we do.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I hope becomes global because it needs to be accessible.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yes, yes, this is such an important thing and I
have a lot of friends who are involved in stuff
like this, So this is an exciting topic to go over,
and I'm glad people are looking into it because it's yeah,
impacting all of us. Well, if you have any more
resources listeners that we could use to come back to
(09:25):
this topic or this person, please let us know. If
you have any suggestions for this segment, Please let us know.
You can email us at Steffania Momstuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at moms Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You.
We have a tea public store, and we have a
book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
is z Alwis too, our super producer Christina, our executive
(09:46):
producer Maya, and our contributor Joey.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Steffan Never Told You is projection of iHeartRadio for more podcasts,
or my heart Radio. You can check out the higheart
Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows, you know
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff
I've Never Told you production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to Feminists around the World, where we celebrate activists, advocates,
all those who are creating differences and making so much change,
and we want to get flowers while they're still with us. Annie,
As in fact, we actually got a shout out from
someone that we may have to come back to and
hopefully maybe we can do an interview. I'll tell you
(00:39):
off Mike, but yeah, we got someone who actually caught us.
They're like, I saw my name and I was like.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What, Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I meant to tell you this off Mike, but I
just remembered it as we're talking about it. Because that's
one of the things that we want to do is
celebrate who they are and what they've been doing while
they're still with us, and not wait till it's too late.
Ever happened way too much where people do not get
their flowers when they deserve it. We want them to
know we appreciate them. And that's kind of the point
(01:07):
of the segment in itself. And today we are talking
about an amazing activist, an entrepreneur who's been working to
change waste into something sustainable, and that activist and entrepreneur
is in zombie. Mati from Nairobi. Mati is an engineer,
(01:27):
an innovator, and environmentalist and so much more. She has
already accomplished so much within her thirty one years and
continues to change the world with her innovative ideas.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And apparently she's got a lot of them. This is
just one of them.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
All the people who know her or have interviewed her
are like, yeah, she's got ideas.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So I'm really excited to find out if there's more
that we see. But yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So. After being trained in engineering in biochemistry, Mati worked
as an engineer in the Kenyan oil industry, but soon
left her job in twenty seventeen to start her new venture.
She told interviewers quote, in twenty seventeen, I decided to
quit my formal job as a data analyst in order
to focus on sustainability and waste management. Using material engineering
(02:13):
and science background, I was like, how can we figure
it out a way to convert this plastic waste into
something useful. It was from here when I decided to
enter building space, because building is a basic human need.
Fast forward. That's how we ended up converting plastic into
building blocks.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And with that she founded the company Jingay Makers, which
has become an innovative solution to the plastic that has
been wasted and no longer in use. From their site
Jingay dot co dotke quote, Jingay constitutes a community focused
enterprise driving to cater to the requisite for sustainable and
economically viable alternative building materials within Kenya and the broader continent.
(02:54):
Our inaugural creations are innovations formulated from recycled plastics utilized
to fabricate plastic paid blocks, plastic paving tiles, and plastic
manhole covers. Our Assembly conceptualize the inception of a plastics
accumulation enterprise which was intended to categorize and vent plastic
waste to other recycling corporations. The realization that we were
(03:15):
amassing waste more rapidly than it could be absorbed by
the recycling entities led to a reevaluation and alteration of
our original concept. Consequently, a resolution was reached to augment
the value of these plastics. Thus the idea to create
alternative construction products was conceived.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, and it goes on talking about their mission, saying
our mission is to devise innovative solutions for the development
of esthetic, pleasing and sustainable alternative construction products, carrying not
only to Kenya, but also extending our reach across the
African continent. Our objective is the supply sustainable and cost
effective alternative building materials while simultaneously generating employment opportunities for
(03:56):
the youth and women. We are committed to fostering a
culture of cycling and upcycling within Kenya and throughout Africa,
contributing to environmental preservation and stateability. And they explain how
it's done, saying, we accumulate the plastic waste and utilizing
the state of the art technologies, we process it amalgamating
the recycled plastic with sand to formulate a mixture. This
(04:17):
concoction is then molded to fabricate our diverse products. Jinay
Makers has carved a unique position as a pioneering manufacturer
in delivering aesthetically pleasing, economically accessible, and environmentally sustainable alternative
plastic building materials, and.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
In different interviews she has explained why she has dedicated
her life to doing this quote, plastic waste is not
just a Kenya problem. But it's a worldwide problem. Here
in Nairobi, we generate about five hundred metric tons of
plastic waste every single day, and only a fraction of
that is recycled. We decided what more can we do
instead of just sitting in the sidelines and complaining. Essentially,
(04:54):
companies have to pay to dispose the waste, so we
solve their problem. That waste essentially comes for free.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And she explains that she feels plastic is misused and misunderstood. Quote,
it is absurd that we still have this problem of
providing decent shelter, a basic human need. Plastic is a
material that is misused and misunderstood. The potential is enormous,
but this afterlife can be disastrous. We thought of this
amazing material, but we didn't think of the repercussions. We
(05:22):
didn't think about the afterlife, especially of single use plastics.
And in twenty twenty, she was named Young Champion of
the Earth Winner at the United Nations Environment Program or
un EP, and she was able to get funding and
mentoring through the program.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And here's a bit from the un EP website about
her work. Quote. Through trial and error, she and her
team learned that some plastics bind together better than others.
Her project was given a boost when Mattee won a
scholarship to attend a social entrepreneurship training program in the
United States of America. With her Pavor samples packed in
her luggage. She used the material labs in the University
(05:57):
of Colorado, Boulder to further test and refine the ratios
of sand to plastic.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right, and here's a quote from lifegate dot com about
the process of the plastic waste recycling her company does.
Quote in Zombie explains that several stages to Jingay's mechanical
plastic waste recycling. She said, the first stage involves preprocessing,
which includes the sourcing and collection of plastic waste. The
waste is clean, shredded, and separated into different plastic types. Secondly,
(06:22):
the processing stage involves the mixing of waste plastic with
sand and glass. However, it isn't at this process when
they add color in the process. Meanwhile, the final stage
involves a hydraulic press, which includes breaking the mixture into
different shapes and sizes depending on whatever block you're making.
And then the materials are moved to the cooling bath
where they reduce the temperatures to room temperature, and once
(06:44):
the blocks are cool, they are ready to be laid.
And Zombie said the paving blocks are stronger and cheaper
than concrete blocks, and that's what the company specializes in
making high quality sustainable pavers and construction breaks from use plastic.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
These bricks, though, were not her original intention. In euronews
dot com, they write quote, creating building blocks out of
plastic wasn't in in Zombie's business plan. She was initially
going to open a plastics collection company that would sort
and sell plastic waste to other recycling companies. How their
in Zombie realized Jingay was collecting waste faster than the
(07:20):
recycling companies could uptake, so she decided to use her
engineering background and pivot to create sustainable, alternative construction products.
Now Jingay has become a trailblazer in the industry and
her work is reaching beyond just the sustainability part. From
lifegate dot com article, they quote Matie saying our company
(07:43):
employees marginalized individuals, especially women in youth. Jingay Makers is
empowering communities and offering hope for a better future. This
combination of environmental and social sustainability makes Jingay Makers stand
out as a true pioneer in the world of social entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, she has become an inspiration for so many and
as of twenty twenty three, her company has done so
well that the demand is exceeding the supply and according
to that eunews dot com, their work keeps expanding and
helping so many quote. Jingay also plans to help the
community by promoting upcycling, recycling culture and providing jobs for
young people across the African continent. I'm happy to say
(08:22):
we have one hundred and twenty three families benefiting from
this process, and Zombie says. Looking long term, the young
entrepreneur plans to use her skills to train the next generation.
She hopes this kind of recycling, turning plastic waste into
viral resources is a model every country will eventually adopt.
And honestly, I was looking at their site.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
They look good. I want some of those.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I want some of those who put into my property
because they look like nice and they've done a really
great job. Of course, this is just one of the
things that she is doing and she's being recognized for.
Her award came in twenty twenty I can't imagine that's
the last award, but I haven't found anything else. I'm
sure we'll be hearing more about the company what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I hope we do.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I hope becomes global because it needs to be accessible.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yes, yes, this is such an important thing and I
have a lot of friends who are involved in stuff
like this, So this is an exciting topic to go over,
and I'm glad people are looking into it because it's yeah,
impacting all of us. Well, if you have any more
resources listeners that we could use to come back to
(09:25):
this topic or this person, please let us know. If
you have any suggestions for this segment, Please let us know.
You can email us at Steffania Momstuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at moms Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You.
We have a tea public store, and we have a
book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
is z Alwis too, our super producer Christina, our executive
(09:46):
producer Maya, and our contributor Joey.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Steffan Never Told You is projection of iHeartRadio for more podcasts,
or my heart Radio. You can check out the higheart
Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows, you know
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