Nigerian entrepreneur transforms thousands of discarded tires into high-strength bricks. She is Ifedolapo Runsewe, who is the founder CEO of Freetown Waste Management Recycle Limited, an indigenous waste recycling and rubber manufacturing company.
Thinking about an alternative to depend less on hydrocarbons, this industrial plant has been able to generate a way to take advantage of used tires to give them a second use. Ifedolapo Runsewe, a pioneer entrepreneur of this initiative, considers this type of recycling to be very profitable.
The businesswoman believes that although the aim is to integrate the community into the process, the results are already very beneficial. “The motivation was to create something new out of something that would otherwise would be somewhere in waste. We can create a whole value chain around tires," said Runsewe holding up a cobblestone, one of the company's best-selling products.
Photo Courtesy: Freetown
This resource reuse solution aims to improve current management in Nigeria. With this type of dynamics, the unemployed population is included, as it can generate indirect jobs, allowing a diversification of the economy of the most populated country in the African continent.
It is a circular economy model that should be emulated by all other entrepreneurs and companies that want to make a difference and adapt to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. Freetown Waste Management Recycle has used more than 60,000 tires to date and has been able to use them in various locations such as playgrounds.
