1 Oasus Water bottle = 1% donation to Unicef Plastic Bricks

Plastic Bricks is a sustainable project which recycles plastic into building blocks for classrooms in Ivory Coast. The West African country has a huge waste problem. Only five percent of plastic is sold for recycling, mostly by women. Unfortunately, this provides them far too little. At the same time, 1.6 million children and young people do not go to school in Ivory Coast. The UNICEF factory buys the plastic waste directly from the women and processes it into building blocks. Through collaborations with partners and sustainable solutions, UNICEF offers women and young people in Ivory Coast hope for the future. UNICEF trains mothers and young people in the collection, safe storage and processing of plastic waste. At our recycling factory we buy the plastic waste directly from the women for a fair price. The factory processes the plastic waste into building blocks, which are used for the construction of new classrooms.

Only five percent of the enormous amount of plastic waste in Ivory Coast is reused, mainly by women and young people from the poorest communities. They collect the waste and sell it on the black market. Women are underpaid and their own community treats them as misfits. In addition, they cannot afford to send their children to school. This is one of the reasons why two million children in Ivory Coast do not go to school. The waste problem is especially present in the poorest communities. The stored plastic waste pollutes the groundwater. The pollution blocks the water drainage. This creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes, bacteria and parasites that cause malaria, diarrhea and cholera, for example.

UUNICEF trains (young) mothers and young people by the collection, safe storage and processing of plastic waste. They also receive training in entrepreneurship, so that they can set up their own companies. As a result, they learn to charge a fair price for recycling plastic and to do this with a direct customer. Currently, they receive 20 percent of the market price through black market intermediaries. In a fair situation they would receive 80 to 90 percent of the market price from a direct buyer. At the end of 2019, UNICEF opened a recycling factory in Youpougon. Here we buy the plastic waste directly from the women for a fair price. The factory processes the plastic waste into building blocks, which are used for the construction of new classrooms. By buying the waste directly, it no longer needs to be stored in communities. In this way we create a cleaner living environment and prevent deadly diseases for children.

The collaboration is actually quite natural, Peter Westveer the commercial director at Eurobottle: ‘We often get the question: what do you do for society? We answer that with this action. By joining UNICEF, we belong to a large organization that helps children on a global scale. As an employer, we consider the development of children important. Growing up in an environment where you get opportunities will only make the world a better place in the end.”

Supporting the ‘Plastic Bricks’ project not only stimulates education (children and adults) in Ivory Coast, but also works towards a better environment. Ivory Coast has a huge waste problem. The capital Abidjan produces 288,000 kilos of plastic every day. UNICEF has some of this recycled into plastic building blocks, which are used to build classrooms. Currently 1.6 million children in Ivory Coast are out of school. With the contribution of the sale of our Oasus water bottle, not only can more children go to school, but mothers and young people are also trained in collecting plastics, safe storage and processing of plastic waste!

1 Oasus water bottle = 1% donation to UNICEF Plastic Bricks

Curious about even more information? Visit www.unicef.nl/businessbuddies