A Cameroonian engineer, Claude Tayo has developed a way of using recycled plastic as a key material in the country’s construction sites.
Timber is the prime material for formwork, the moulds used for pouring concrete and Tayo discovered that it could be replaced by recycled plastic.
Moulds built from timber form up to 10% of the total construction and are indispensable to building sites. In addition, the wooden formwork is too heavy to transport to the sites.
Tayo’s company Eco-Co proposes replacing the wooden formwork with those made of recycled plastic, which is lighter and can be reused up to 50 times.
According to Djoumann.com, a website, which describes itself as “an African platform for collaborative innovation”, Eco-Co’s formwork, is cheaper than its wooden equivalent.
Eco-Co is trying to persuade African construction sites to use the plastic formwork, which it believes could save 200,000 trees or 60,000 hectares of forest annually, as well as reducing plastic waste.
The website also said the business had been receiving help from Burkina Faso-based le Fabrique, a business incubator which aims to assist socially responsible businesses.
Plastic bags have been banned in Ivory Coast and Cameroon since 2014, in Senegal since 2015 and in Mali since 2013.
