Two social entrepreneurs in Dorset have launched a start-up that is aiming to help developing countries with technology that uses waste plastic to make building materials.
Wimborne-based Greenbrick Workshops was founded by Ben Gibbons and Connor Winter after the pair were forced by the Covid-19 pandemic to return to the 海角视频 in March last year from Nepal.
They had been working with rural communities in the South Asian country to reduce the damage caused there by plastic pollution.
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On their return, the business partners converted an old Hovis Bread van into a workshop where they began to develop their plastic brick product.
The duo were inspired by an online open source recycling project called Precious Plastic, which provides information and equipment to designers and artisans looking to establish small shops that create products from locally sourced recyclable waste.
With the help of design engineer Ella Fenwick, who joined the team to lead prototype development, Greenbrick Workshops creates the bricks by washing and shredding waste plastic, heating it to 250 degrees, and then pushing it into a steel mould.
Precious plastic enabled Greenbrick Workshops to use an open-source mould for its first prototype which the business is now looking to refine in order to scale it more effectively.
Greenbrick Workshops is now working with non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe and Mozambique to set up local workshops that can use their technology to build affordable houses.
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The start-up is aiming to establish 1,000 workshops over the next 10 years, which it hopes would prevent around six million tonnes of carbon dioxide being released from plastic burning and during the production of clay bricks and cement.
The business estimates that this would also allow for the recycling of around 800,000 tonnes of plastic that could potentially end up in oceans - around 1% of global ocean plastic leakage.
Greenbrick Workshops co-founder Ben Gibbons said: “The solutions are already out there, our task is to make sure that everyone has access to them.”
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The company was able to get funding for the equipment needed to develop its prototype plastic bricks through a £11,500 loan from Cambridge-based enterprise firm YTKO Group’s Outset Finance programme.
An official delivery partner of the Government’s Start-Up Loan Scheme, the programme helps finance new businesses and for start-ups with no track record and a lack of financial collateral.
Mr Gibbons said: “The whole process took just three weeks from start to finish, which was incredible.
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“The advisor helped me to improve my application, suggesting that I look at my competitors to consider how to position our community interest company. This help was invaluable and certainly helped to make the application go through so quickly.
“I’m really thankful for the support I have received from Outset Finance. They had the open mind to take time to understand what we are planning to achieve, and their loan has been crucial to what we’ve been able to achieve so far.”
Greenbrick is one of more than 22,000 businesses to have been supported by YTKO over a 14-year period.
YTKO Group chief executive Bev Hurley said: "We are incredibly proud of achieving such high levels of both improved productivity and job creation, increasing the competitiveness of the 海角视频 economy during the longest period of economic uncertainty in the 海角视频.
"It also robustly demonstrates that financial and social exclusion can be overcome, and therefore how we are impacting directly on the levelling up agenda and left-behind places, pioneering a more inclusive economy.
"I am so proud that, as an SME ourselves, our teams have delivered such a major impact through our social mission."