How A Ghanaian Man Is Building Affordable Homes With Waste Plastics!

[Music] i hope you all enjoy my journeys across five countries in africa as you all can see i'm back again in my beautiful country and anytime i'm back in my beautiful countries i just can't stop sharing beautiful stories with you you know what i'm on a journey to celebrate african excellence and if you are part of this family then you need to help me so that more people can see such a beautiful stories so that they will also be inspired that is why the video i'm gonna share today i'm gonna force you to like the video and please do me a favor and share the video it's very very important like and share i need to get 10 000 likes on this video [Music] thank you so much for liking the video and thank you so much for sharing and if you're new to the channel please do me a favor and subscribe and be part of the million family on youtube my name is juana maya and you know what the excitement of my face tells it all because i'm here to celebrate a young ghanaian who has been creative and innovative because we all know that plastics is everywhere in ghana and this guy decided to recycle plastic into something meaningful if i say something meaningful i'm talking about pavement block that he used plastic to construct also he's building a whole house with plastic have you ever seen anything like that before i mean it's my first time but let me know in the comment section if that is your first time i've seen plastic being recycled into a whole house brothers and sisters are you ready to see this young man i'm already done you but like the video and come with me [Music] the most inspiring young man in ghana hi my how are you you're good i mean are you young though i'm very young i'm i'm a young guy like you i'm not younger i'm an old man man you know a lot of people are talking about you i was in somalia when people started telling me that hey you need to go back to ghana and talk to this guy bro you're an inspiration thank you you're the most creative guy in ghana right now thank you the most innovative man no young man in ghana thank you thank you it's good to see you good to see you too my name is maya though and um can you tell me your name and where you i mean what do you do in ghana why is it everyone is talking about you i'm nelson watty is this for me it's for you it's for you your business before people yeah coming beat me up yep all right thank you yeah you know what a lot of people are talking about you that's why i'm here i know you already because i did a whole research about you but people out there don't know who you are so tell us something about yourself i'm nelson watty and i'm just the founder and ceo of nel plus ecogana limited where we see plastics to be a variable resource another threat to the environment is properly managed whoa i mean you're born and raised in ghana born and raised in ghana a shaman boy i was raised school everything in shama you never left ghana at all i've left ghana for some courses and some i mean how long i mean did you i mean live abroad just to get your money and come and start whatever you're doing here no no i started everything fresh from ghana so how did this all start okay so i was working with one chinese company at the age of 13 i was already working which is totally back then but i need that to help my parents take care of my siblings so fortunately for me that day i was posted to the recycling department that is where i got my experience on working with plastics so from there now you own this huge factory bra i mean you're not a magician right so definitely i need to know how did this all start man okay so uh it it was a family company then but there was misunderstanding between the family so they decided to sell the company around 2012 and they they came up with the news that anybody who who will be able to find a potential buyer will get five percent of the two thousand value fortunately for me i got that deal so the money i got i just bring it here set up my old factory and then i came along with the workers that lost their job to start a new factory your co-workers yes we came to this place with them yes that's incredible so most of the people here they are my co-workers you see why everyone is saying that your inspiration so let me know yeah i mean definitely you use plastic to turn into what what do you do to paving blocks and lego bricks for building affordable housing yeah are you serious yes because uh we want to see every online guardian and in between 500 to one tower to also own a house that is what the company vision is how much will it cost to own a house with a house built with plastics okay so one bedroom house kitchen hall combined when we do we build to the roof we do the doors it's 60 000. then when you're doing all the inside finishing it's 90 000 ghana cities it's affordable yeah but i mean i just want to understand yeah what is the inspiration behind of you using plastics to do what you do okay so uh you know according to the undp report ghana generates about over one million tons of plastic with annually okay and only five percent is ever recycled the rest land itself in the drainage the sea and it caused a lot of problem life and properties are lost you you you can remember the june 2015 what happened a second all the problem was attributed to plastic bags manufacturers we also have the problem of housing in ghana we also have problem of schools under trees in ghana we also have a problem of unemployment so neroplus is using the problem of plastic waste to solve the other three problem thereby solving for a problem at a goal a genius thank you has anyone ever told you that uh i mean i bet yours is most powerful if you think he's genius do me a favor like the video share the video so that the world will hear his story you know what before you take me to the factory you have something to tell them before you take me to the factory oh what what what what i would say is we see every problem as an opportunity people are saying plastic is bad yes plastic is not good it's polluting our environment but we should we we shouldn't forget that we caused the plastic to be there because the plastic bag manufacturers just produced and kept them in their warehouse they gave it to the retailers and we as a end users we use the plastic and just throw them on the street when they choke the gutter and cause flood then we blame the plastic no we should blame ourselves for not properly disposing of the plastic waste take me to the factory thank you [Music] so so this is the raw material that we're using is actually from nesto ghana limited little their waste they normally crashed and bring it to us at no fee for it to be used in the production of the lego bricks for affordable housing but before lego breaks what were you doing before i was doing i was actually recycling only the pyota sachi into pellets then i'll sell them to their poly bag or the shopping bag manufacturing what they call it manufacturing company but that very i decided no their profit is going to them so why don't i do the shopping bag my since i am all i know is about about plastic so i brought in some machine and started doing the polybags but during 2015 where the government was trying to put a ban on polybag manufacturing company because they believe we are the cost of the flood that occurred then then we a lot of lives were lost and what we call it properties i also felt bad any time they said plastic bags is causing this problem it's caused that problem so i asked what will i do which would be more sustainable a product that wouldn't go out there to pollute the environment anymore but also to help solve the problem of plastic waste so yeah you know what i want to see how they is it's a constructor mode how do they mow the brakes for the pavement our technology is sand poly exclusion before we use plastics and sand together together and the color is just for beauty case maybe the customer wants red black green and other colors so that is it right now yes wow we have women to among us we train women on how to operate the machine how many people are working for you right now currently we are 64 workers working directly we run shifts and over 300 indirect workers and they are about 98 women they go out there to pick their plastic from the environment they're doing anyway and they like it so much because this time they are not going to look for one type of plastic waste any plastic they lay their hands on they collect it bring it to us we scale and pay them according to the weight i think the least person is getting 50 guys in the per day whoa yeah i mean which kind of plastic do you use all kinds of plastic with exceptional pvc pipes because the pvc pipe doesn't bond well with the sun and in its production it's we released some dangerous fumes yeah so we don't include i mean since you pay 50 cities a day you need to employ me man some are getting more than 50 cities the least person it depends on the quantity of plastic that you can bring towards like they have their my my collector has a capacity of taking about 20 000 kilos of plastic waste from the environment but we as a company can produce only 3 000 clothes due to enough formatting to process all these plastic waste and you've got all these machines from china no it's only one part from china that's the ideal place everything you see here i build them myself what are you an engineer like i told you i started very young and i was following my masters they built machines so that is where i acquired my language from once again he's genius [Applause] what let me know what are they mixing together to get this red color so this is a big shot plastics all kind of plastic way with sand and color the color to give some dedication to the product it could be fed into the extruder that should have three heating zones okay why we use three things though because we use all kinds of plastic waste and they all have different melting points so as they travel through the lines they come out as a paste we scale them we also have a uniform tile size and then it will be placed in a mode with a cooling stem around it then press and then hydraulic press so between 30 seconds to 60 seconds reject one product so and how many breaks can you produce in a day between 18 to 1500 depending on the size and the shape that we are producing that's like within 12 hours or 24 hours 22 hours because we are one hour break wow i think even after going through the cooling process it's still hot yeah oh wow it takes about six hours six hours yes and what is the weight for this six point five kilos yes because we we have heavy cars that will drive on it if you are doing for a lighter road then we go for four or four point five kilos the heavy roads you need for the pavement blocks yes oh wow so you get the model the design everything done locally yeah that's incredible man [Music] maya yeah i forgot to tell you this okay you know everything that you are seeing in there started with this drum yes this is how we started producing the blocks i was actually putting the plastic here set fire beneath when the plastic gets melted i just put my sand in it then i'll stay with a shovel or anything that i lay my hands on but then the the the community were giving a lot of complaints because the film that is coming out was too much and also the product that we get from this process is very weak because when you bend plastic for a very long time they lose their bonding properties and therefore when you just hit the ground with a little force it should just break and also the smell was very bad because you bend the plaque and the scent can stay for very long time for years so from this now we have to sit down do a lot of research and build understood that right now you are not seeing any fumes you can walk in there without much fumes coming out you build that machine yourself i bought it myself the only thing you see here that is outside is the idol price that's it that is it your story is inspirational thank you i really want to see the house that you built with plastics i will take you today thank you i will take you there everyone is waiting for me i will take you there thank you [Music] so maya this is the house built with plastics thirteen thousand four hundred kilos of plastic whisk with plastic plastic waste are you kidding me yes you mean this is built with the bricks that they were that they were producing the factories so this is the house made up of plastic 13 400 kilos of plastic waste mainly from agates and beaches and the floors they are also made up of plastic waste [Music] can i say genius once again yeah and how much will this cost this when we build fully with a roof and a door 60 000 gunner cities but with the interior everything wearing plumbing wear kitchen cabinet 90 ninety thousand guys are you know building for people in the country we are we've started taking some orders and we started with the first one this is the first one but we were actually selling it for people living in swampy areas to be used as their foundation blocks then they can continue with their normal concrete blocks but this is the first house how hard it is to convince ghanaians in general that you can build a plastic from the beginning it was difficult but because when i started people were like this won't work but in my mind i know everything is possible if you push hard everything is possible tell me some of the challenges that you faced when you started this ah the area guys were laughing at me that this guy is it crazy how can you use plastic from the garters how can you build a whole house with this how will you put your electrical wires plumbing work the kitchen cabinet i said everything is possible when you push forward everybody it's possible yeah when you push forward that's why i want to push into the room just to go and see what he has done sorry yeah let it's not my room but i'm so blown away that's i have to open it go you go go in let's go let's go come in and come in so if i don't tell you this is plastic you will never believe we just did the interior finishing with eop and other chemicals and the thickness just about 0.5 mm so very thin just to cover the block work because most garnier don't really like the block work design so i did that to just to cover it and this house is not built by a mace you know i built this house i'm not amazing with my workers every saturday and the area guy student we arrange them like legos who are you manny i'm nelson button you you build them how you call a machine now you build the house what else have you built that we don't know so many things because where i grew up like my grandfather he will let you do everything like then we there's not much money so messing work we will just stand looking at you everything is here then we'll do next the next time we will not call it again we'll do that by ourselves that is how my grandfather works what is that one coat that keeps you moving wow people bring plastic waste to me they will tell you because of you i can put food on the table for my family you can't stop the challenge is big but i can't stop when you remember those things you can't stop the the woman who carried that children on their back they will tell you ah mistake when we did money oh today i can eat when you hear those stories you can't stop even if it's hard you can't stop i'm i'm i'm blown away man you mean like everything here it's made by plastic you have a water people were wondering how would i put the the plumbing wax i have water i have electricity everything works yet everything works perfectly here but is it safe it's safe because people are thinking it's plastic there'll be fumes no plastic will start generating heat at a temperature of let's say 100 degrees ago in ghana we've not even record 50 degree sessions and this product is made up of 70 sun only 30 percent plastic which serves as the bonding property in the product and there is a hole or groove in between the bricks it doesn't allow the heat from outside to come in and also maintain the temperature of the room so there's nothing like fumes i mean like there's something that people don't even know that um fire can be quenched with sun with sun if a car catches fire now and there's no fire extinguisher the first thing that comes to our mind is go and get sun so that is why we made the sun contained more than the plastics brother i have so many young africans watching people that look just like you if you have a message to them what would that message be what i would tell the youth is there is a good thing in every bad situation the bad situation here is we're talking about plastic being a problem for me nelson and my company we don't see plastic to be a problem we humans are the problem for our improper disposal of plastic waste in the street the plastic never flies to our beaches we carry them there they never fly to our dream age we carry them there so we need to change our attitude of disposal see plastic not to be a problem because people talk less replace plastic with paper do you know what it takes to produce one sheet of paper the amount of water i need when it gets wrought on the soil the gases that you release to the soil you have no idea the trees that would be cut down plastic not because i need plastic to work because they can burn plastic totally we use all kinds of plastic if you buy plastic bag i can go in for uh used computer cases fridges i can use them for anything so me not because i use plastic we should know that the plastic is better than the paper we are the problem is we need to change our attitude of disposal period do you believe that it's possible in africa it's possible to make it in africa or we have to go abroad before we make it or we do you think that the youth of africa can make it right here in africa you can make it let me tell you one short story when i was when i finished this those that came in new in the area they say hey china people are now doing things so i was in here laughing wow then it's good if they appreciate china and and it's indirectly a ghanaian like me who built it the mode everything is by myself designed nothing is from outside and this very september i'm introducing the roofing sheet i was supposed to do it somewhere august but something came up so i'm introducing a new refrigerator made up of plastic to further bring the cost down i want to see every ghanian every low-income guardian owning a house that is my fish that is what i want to achieve the very low income grant that is what i'm targeting not the big ones they're low-income ghanaian because the real estate companies they are building for millions we can't afford we that you can't afford so this is what i want and mind you don't say it's plaza is cheaper this house will stay forever than the concrete house it will not crack because it has the ability to expand and contract when it's earthquake what is the last part 500 years plastic tape 500 years to start degrading so is the product because the product made we are gone if you can have somebody coming have a look at it and tell the story do you believe africa is the future africa is the future let's believe in ourselves let's buy into our own product that is how china started you can't bring banks to china like that then you need to pay more import duties you need to use what you have improve it and this is just the beginning now i've built the house i'll stay here whatever i need to improve i'll do it where should we see nelson watson in the next 10 years uh you seen us in barton being one of the top recyclers in the world that is what we want to achieve we want to see ghana clean up plastic mainly by neoplastic that is what we want to achieve are you getting support from the government or the ghanians in general uh for government i have the minister of western housing visiting us some few weeks ago he has given his promise because he was saying the government is embarking on affordable housing so you he will he will push our product to that project because he believes we are doing 70 locally made material so he will ensure that our our material is being used for such projects and um how many floors can we go for now we can go one floor all i need to do is to redesign the corner mode to make it bigger to receive more concrete and iron to carry two three four four iron rods in there in the corners we can do we can understood at bigger beams but lack of finance i can't do that research i can't build that machine now because it's very expensive doing one mode one would cost me over seventy thousand ghana cities and this house i tried more than seven times so i've spent a lot of money to get to this you tried more than seven times to get it right that is why we can go in there is no aircon but the room still feel cold it's a different technology all together that is why you can stick a ceramic tile on a plastic wall it's a different technology altogether we've done a lot of research a lot of money has gone into this and i'm somebody i won't stop until i get it right i sell my house sell my cars until i get it right i won't stop that is my character if you had a chance to change one thing in africa what will it change our mindset our mindset is the problem we see goods coming from abroad to be better than what we have here that is why we are still suffering even if you see and you think it's not good stay there be there improve it it will surely get better if i would have stopped this you wouldn't see this thing yet if i'm listening to what people are saying they are laughing at me why are you crazy you pick plastic from the gutter you want to build a house no this is the house like i said me nelson i won't stop until i get it right that is me i want to say thank you so much for talking to me but are you selling no this house i'm not selling this is my showroom my office my residence but now we are building for people people are pleased or that we are building for people i just want to say thank you so much for talking to me and i wish you all the best and i would also love you to build one for me so i will when would that be very soon i'm serious about it i'll give you a very big discount thank you so much you

Channel: WODE MAYA

Views: 595,953

Keywords: wodemaya, africatotheworld, africa, africa you don't see on Tv, beautiful africa, recycling ideas, recycling plastic, recycling in ghana, dentaa show, recycling paper, waste management, plastic bottles, how waste is recycled, Nelson boateng, building roads with plastic waste, building with plastic waste, biztech how a ghanaian is building affordable homes with plastic waste

Id: EPmZmUBFryY

Length: 25min 52sec (1552 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 24 2021