 | |
| Founded | United States (2020, as Salubata) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Nigeria, France, United States |
Key people | Fela Buyi Akinse Yewande Akinse |
| Website | www |
SALUBATA is a shoe design and manufacturing company that collects and converts plastic waste into customized shoes. [1] [2]
In 2020, SALUBATA won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and became the first IEEE Entrepreneurship Stars Virtual Competition. [3] [4] [5]
Salubata is a global brand, started in Nigeria, registered in France and currently headquartered in the United States. Founded in 2020 by Fela Buyi Akinse alongside Yewande Akinse. [6] [7]
The company invented two globally patented technologies which are modular shoes made or repurposed from plastic wastes and carbon decomposition shoe technology. Five per cent of SALUBATA profits from shoe sales are used in empowering children and women in underprivileged communities. [8] [9]
In 2022, they were announced as the winner of Kigali Startup Festival at the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF) in Kigali, [10] [11] and currently have a partnership with Amazon (company), Techstars Accelerator Los Angeles, and has been featured on TechCrunch, Business of Fashion. [12] [13] [14]
In 2023, They were shortlisted from 650 entries worldwide in over 20 different countries on Make it Circular Challenge and were the winner of Circularity 20 at GreenBiz's online circular economy event. [15] [16]
The winners of the Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge 2021 by the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation. [17]
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, air pollution and water pollution.
Plastic recycling is the processing of plastic waste into other products. Recycling can reduce dependence on landfill, conserve resources and protect the environment from plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling rates lag behind those of other recoverable materials, such as aluminium, glass and paper. From the start of plastic production through to 2015, the world produced around 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste, only 9% of which has been recycled and only ~1% has been recycled more than once. Of the remaining waste, 12% was incinerated and 79% was either sent to landfills or lost to the environment as pollution.
Electronic waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. It is also commonly known as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or end-of-life (EOL) electronics. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informal processing of e-waste in developing countries can lead to adverse human health effects and environmental pollution. The growing consumption of electronic goods due to the Digital Revolution and innovations in science and technology, such as bitcoin, has led to a global e-waste problem and hazard. The rapid exponential increase of e-waste is due to frequent new model releases and unnecessary purchases of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), short innovation cycles and low recycling rates, and a drop in the average life span of computers.
Waste sorting is the process by which waste is separated into different elements. Waste sorting can occur manually at the household and collected through curbside collection schemes, or automatically separated in materials recovery facilities or mechanical biological treatment systems. Hand sorting was the first method used in the history of waste sorting. Waste can also be sorted in a civic amenity site.
Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste product may become a by-product, joint product or resource through an invention that raises a waste product's value above zero.
Werner & Mertz GmbH is a medium-sized, family-run manufacturer of cleaning and care agents with headquarters in Mainz. The company emerged from the wax factory "Gebrüder Werner", which was founded in 1867. Werner & Mertz has sold shoe polish under the brand name Erdal since 1901. Household cleaning agents were added to the portfolio after the Second World War. The highest-selling brand is Frosch, which has offered environmentally friendly detergents since 1986. Company owner Reinhard Schneider was awarded the 2019 German Environment Prize in recognition of his services to environmental protection.
A circular economy is a model of resource production and consumption in any economy that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. The concept aims to tackle global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution by emphasizing the design-based implementation of the three base principles of the model. The main three principles required for the transformation to a circular economy are: designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. CE is defined in contradistinction to the traditional linear economy.
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are categorized by size into micro-, meso-, or macro debris. Plastics are inexpensive and durable, making them very adaptable for different uses; as a result, manufacturers choose to use plastic over other materials. However, the chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to many natural processes of degradation and as a result they are slow to degrade. Together, these two factors allow large volumes of plastic to enter the environment as mismanaged waste which persists in the ecosystem and travels throughout food webs.
Veena Sahajwalla is an Indian inventor who is Professor of Materials Science in the Faculty of Science at UNSW Australia. She is the Director of the UNSW SM@RT Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow.
Bilikiss Adebiyi or Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola is a Nigerian entrepreneur who founded the Lagos-based recycling company 'Wecyclers'. In 2022 she was the Director General of the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB) and Managing Director of the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK). She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund.
Brianne West is a New Zealand environmentalist, entrepreneur and the founder of Ethique, the world's first zero-waste beauty brand. In 2016 she was named a "Global Thinker" by Foreign Policy magazine and in 2019 the EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Rothy's is an American direct-to-consumer company which designs and sells shoes and accessories. Rothy's was initially founded in 2012 and launched in 2016 by Stephen Hawthornthwaite and Roth Martin as a women's shoe company in San Francisco. It has since expanded with handbags and a men's line.
Onyeka Akumah is a Nigerian technology entrepreneur with a focus on transportation, agriculture, real estate, and media sectors. He is popularly known as the founder of Treepz Inc. Prior to founding his company in 2019, Onyeka Akumah was the CEO of Farmcrowdy. He is credited to have been involved in the success of various tech and e-commerce companies in Africa where he held positions and contributed to their growths.
Adejoke Lasisi is a Nigerian fashion designer, and environmentalist known for her development of fashion products and designs using nylon and textile wastes. She is the founder and CEO of Planet 3R and Jokelinks Weaving School.
Polymateria Ltd is a British technology company developing biodegradable plastic alternatives. In 2020, the privately owned company was the first to achieve certified biodegradation of the most commonly-littered forms of plastic packaging in real-world conditions, in less than a year without creating microplastics.
Plastic sequestration is a means of plastic waste management that secures used plastic out of industry and out of the environment into reusable building blocks made by manual compaction. Plastic sequestration is motivated by environmental protection and modeled on the Earth's process of carbon sequestration. Emerging out of the struggle of towns and communities in the Global South to deal with plastic pollution, plastic sequestration compaction methods are characterized by being locally based, non-capital, non-industrial and low-tech. Plastic sequestration is defined by the goals of securing plastic out of the environment and out of high energy/carbon industrial systems. Based on eliminating the chemical and physical and abiotic and biotic degradation pathways, plastic sequestration aims to achieve these goals, by terminally reducing the net surface area of thin film plastics. The building blocks that emerge from plastic sequestration are used in applications that further protect from degradation and permanently keep plastic out of industrial processes, thereby preventing their carbon emissions.
Nzambi Matee born at the date September 19 1992, is a Kenyan trained mechanical engineer, environmentalist, hardware designer, inventor and serial entrepreneur. She is well known for her innovative and creative ways of converting waste into sustainable materials. She pioneered the sustainable efforts by recycling plastic to make bricks that can be even stronger than a concrete. Her sustainable efforts have also been hailed as one of the successful strategies to curb the plastic pollution in Kenya. She founded Gjenge Makers, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Wecyclers is a waste management company in Nigeria that helps low-income communities exchange their recyclable waste which is measured in kilograms for cash and other rewards.
ATRenew is a Chinese company established in 2011 and headquartered in Shanghai, founded by Kerry Xuefeng Chen. ATRenew operates two main business segments: a second-hand product trade and service system, and an urban green industry chain business. The company has several subsidiaries, including AHS Recycle, and maintains a strategic partnership with JD.com, which was its largest investor prior to ATRenew’s rebranding. ATRenew is traded on the NYSE.
Yewande Akinse is a Nigerian poet, author and entrepreneur who co-founded, Salubata, Pap.earth and Plychain.