UPCYCLE: Using Technology To Make Waste Management Profitable For Africa

We have had many initiatives in the management of waste. From waste conservation, reuse to recycle. The more recent and innovative approach to waste management now is Upcycle. A process where the end life of a product is planned before the product is manufactured.
For instance before a new paper sheet is manufactured, the manufacture could arrange for the buyer who would get the used paper for recycling into storage cartons and also ensures that the consumer is able to (with minimum effort) effectively manage the intermediate role of buyer and seller.

This process seems difficult or impossible, but with the use of technology, this is actually achievable. Africa with a non manufacturing economy could utilise this niche to become a middleman for producers and recyclers to complete the upcycle process. We could also early on design our manufacturing and distribution processes to be more waste efficient and Upcycle ready. This could be an advantage for us as a late entrant to the economy as we can use newer and more efficient technology to operate greener, cleaner and more efficient systems.

Full Disclosure: I am a student of Singularity University GSP10. This post draws from some discussions and ideas shared among fellow students at the institution.

Heading To Singularity University

Awesome and unbelievable. I am heading to Singularity University in NASA Ames California for the GSP 10 summer program (http://singularityu.org/). I am one of four Africans in a class of 80 young leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world.

I got to hear about Singularity University (SU) through an Alumni of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) in the USA - Dr. Ndubuisi Ekekwe. This guy is an awesome lover of Humanity and Africans in particular. He has been running a series of Technology workshops to promote technology use for problem solving in Africa.

We had an interesting conversation on how technology could be used to solve Africa's problems from hunger to poverty, ethics, human rights to housing and I was really excited to learn how we could use this to impact our continent and the world. I understand from the GSP09 alumni that the school is a mind blowing experience.

My visas are in order, tickets bought, attending teleconferences and heading out to California to change the world!!! Will keep you all posted on my progress. Hope will get to watch the world cup while changing the world!!!!