The city manages to eliminate 30% of this textile waste. However, the remaining 70% is illegally dumped, inflicting severe environmental damage upon rivers and seas.
PROJECT AFBRICA
Upcycle Labs in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.
100
of fashion waste per day
THE PROBLEM
Within each bale of second-hand clothing received by Kantamanto Market in Ghana, around 40% of the items are classified as waste. This results in the disposal of 100 tonnes of unsellable clothes every day.
THE SOLUTION
AfBRICa Project. Upcycle Labs’ have partnered with the World Economic Forum, Ghanaian President's Office and the largest local waste companies in the region to focus on bringing the real change.
Our common aim is for Upcycle Labs’ technology and processes to be implemented in Ghana to reach the following key objectives:
REMOVE WASTE
Build an upcycling plant which will enable Ghanaians to upcycle fashion waste into bricks and home décor products.
PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT
Continue the essential import of used garments into Ghana to boost the local economy, while eliminating the waste problem related to this.
CREATE NEW JOBS
Introduce local jobs in waste processing and creating upcycled products such as afBRICa Bricks.
BOOST THE LOCAL ECONOMY
Build new green buildings in Ghana out of afBRICa Bricks.
BOOST LOCAL EXPORTS
Create businesses making upcycled products with African heritage which can be exported.
BUILD A CIRCULAR HUB
Put Ghana at the forefront of a new Circular Economy where garment waste transformed into new products.
AfBRICa brick’s (pictured) are made from 75 % out of textile waste and strict building criteria such as fire, water and stress tests.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
“We are excited to be part of the AfBRICa Project initiated by Jack Ostrowski and Barry Kane and work together with Upcycle Labs Co-Founders, the Ghanaian President’s Office and leading local businesses on finding the long-lasting solution to the textile waste problem in Africa”
Luis Alvarado Martinez
Strategic Philanthropic-Public-Private partnerships at World Economic Forum
UPCYCLE LABS
Old African Proverb says that “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We have chosen to apply this wisdom to make sure we build the strong multistakeholder platform which will enable us to tackle textile waste problem in Ghana effectively and simultaneously boost its local economy.
Jack Ostrowski
Co-Founder of Upcycle Labs
