Each year, the best submissions from each participating country are selected to participate in the Greenpreneurs program.
This twelve-week program is a global business accelerator and competition. It recognizes the efforts of young people from developing countries in the fields of sustainable energy; water and sanitation; sustainable landscapes; and green city development.
Mr. Mukuru is the Greenpreneur nominated to represent Uganda in the Greenpreneurs Program this year. He is a marketeer by profession. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with a known construction firm dealing in tiles and ceramics in Uganda for 7 years.
Losing his job, however, didn’t demotivate him from starting up his project which he refers to as “Start-Up” as he hasn’t come up with an ideal company name yet.
In August 2020, Mr. Mukuru and 27 members from his community (Kirobe B-Butabika Parish) organized a community-based group called Butabika Community Recycling Group as a pilot study for his Start-Up. He is currently the chairman of this group.
Under this initiative, the group has been collecting solid waste from their community every Sunday since December 2020. The group hopes that more people will join this valuable mission to keep their community clean. So far, they’ve gathered 15 tons of plastic waste.
The solid waste collected is separated into two, plastic waste and organic waste. The plastic waste is then stored by Mr. Mukuru for his Start-Up project, venturing in recycle it into building materials such as pavers that act as bonding agents or an alternative for cement. He has so far sold 2,000 pavers to his first client.
His current largest challenge is the amount of time being spent on making these building materials. He hopes to get funds to buy machines to help him reduce the time he spends on production. He shared that in a day, he produces up to 50 pavers manually but if automated, he could produce 1,000 pavers a day.
Philip transporting the finished plastic pavers to a client.
The organic waste is used by the group members for different purposes, such as making organic manure to boost agricultural production. The Community Based Group also provides waste management services around Butabika for the homes that can afford to pay for the service. This waste is then sorted and used accordingly. His ambition is to motivate the communities in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Areas to adopt the habit of creating community-based groups with the aim of helping with proper waste management.
Mr. Mukuru joined this educative competition to enhance and expand on his current skillset, as well as benefit from the opportunity to be mentored by experts in this field.
For more information about the Greenpreneurs competition: https://www.greenpreneurs.co/
To get a better idea of what Phillip does, check out his social media pages for more information.
Facebook: Butabika Community Recycling Group
Twitter: @BCRG-UG