[Music]
may I assume that your homes are
off-grid that your homes are powered
with solar power and fed with rain
catchment water if not may I at least
assume that you do your part to recycle
that you compost your organics and place
your inorganic waste in the right bin
always I’m embarrassed to admit that I
don’t why is this we know how to recycle
an hour to offset waste we study it in
school we write academic articles on it
we call the field of study the circular
economy but do we really get it the
evidence is overwhelming that we don’t
i’m a young entrepreneur from africa
wide being an entrepreneur means i’m
building a new future and being from
africa means i’m eminently qualified to
speak about waste as South Africans we
produce enough solid waste to rebuild
the Great Pyramid of Giza every four and
a half days in fact if humanity were to
power our wasted food into oil tankers
then we’d fill the entire global fleet
as we waste 1.3 billion tons of food per
year we also waste 450 billion
kiloliters of water which is like
wasting all the water of hurricane javi
every quarter or Hurricane Katrina every
20 days we waste 350 exajoules of energy
in heat noise and leaks I could tell you
that’s enough energy to melt the
Antarctic ice cap in just over ten years
but who cares 350 exajoules is like
releasing 12 and a half thousand
Hiroshima bombs per day
now numerous NGOs celebrities think
tanks and greenies have used similar
shocking statistics to galvanize the
world into action
sadly they failed call me cynical but I
believe humanity is inherently selfish
if I want my three-year-old daughter to
share a toy with her baby brother
then I must bribe her that is human
nature my wife and I we’re still working
on nature but the same thing can be said
for humanity and waste it’s easy to
justify a triple bottom line or the
pursuit of the Millennium Development
Goals when things are going well but
when hardship strikes then we turn a
blind eye to the world’s flight with
scheme we lie and we retreat I’m
thinking of Volkswagen and the
emissions-cheating scandal or the u.s.
withdrawing from the Paris climate
Accord if these are the actions of the
wealthy respectable companies and
countries what do you think the little
guys are doing we created a world where
10% consumes half 10% doesn’t have any
and 80% believe that trying won’t make a
difference
we must monetize waste else will forever
be fighting short-term greed at the
expense of long-term gain let us
consider the circular economy anew the
first word circular stems from natural
systems and Mufasa gave the best
explanation of the circle of life to
Simba in the movie The Lion King mm-hmm
Simba when we die our bodies become the
grass and the Antelope eat the grass and
so we’re all connected in the great
circle of life
the second word economy stems from Greek
and means two things household and
managed
so participating in the circular economy
means our households are managed so that
we convert what we use into something of
equal or greater value our households
extend beyond their homes to include our
businesses our communities and our
environment when we manage something it
is a considered effort we analyze we
prioritize we optimize when we convert
something to increase its value well
then we’re talking about making money
let me tell you of the Zabaleen of Cairo
the Zabaleen had nothing going for them
as for subsistence farmers they moved to
Cairo in the 1940s they were religiously
marginalized and often persecuted things
were so rough that they started to
collect household waste for free just to
feed their pigs what was in it for them
the inherent value of the waste they
managed their waste
they studied recycling methods and
formed micro recycling enterprises they
invested in tools they started making
crafts they are selling fabrics in New
York by the early 2000s the Zabaleen
were managing about a third of Cairo’s
waste without costing the populace a
cent they mastered resource efficiency
and recycled about 80 percent of what
they collected let me put this into
perspective 15 years ago a poor
persecuted community were doing waste
management as effectively as San
Francisco one of the greenest cities in
the world is doing today they are making
money one of the trickiest sways to
handle is micro particles which are
particles that which are particles
that’s defined as being less than 10
microns in diameter most of the time
Johannesburg in South Africa is covered
in a faint dust haze because a full
of dumped mining slimes are smaller than
10 microns our company developed a
process whereby we mix these mining
slimes with a recycled plastic we add to
this a little bit of magic and then we
compression mold green roof tiles our
tiles weigh a quarter of normal concrete
tiles if they are twice as strong and
not brittle we don’t go around selling
the fact that we can recycle mining
slaves by the truckload no people won’t
buy that they also won’t buy the 1.9
kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions
that we can offset per tile what makes
our tiles worth buying is the fact that
they save a developer on breakage roof
trusses construction time and transport
overall a savior builds roof comes in 10
percent cheaper than a roof built with a
bottom range economy tile after we done
with our certification will be taking
mining slimes with no value creating
roof tiles with real value that is
making money but now let’s really
stretch our minds how about empty space
in 2017 the Lagos State Government
disclosed that there are over 60
abandoned government buildings on Lagos
Island how on earth can this be Lagos is
a city with 14 million people they have
an access problem it takes six hours of
daily commuting simply to work from
those nor can those buildings be
converted into homes because the people
in downtown Lagos are too poor to pay
the rent so what to do how about we
start a hydroponic farming agribusiness
hydroponic farming yields are about four
times that of swell equivalent because
the growing season lasts the entire year
and the constant provision of the
correct nutrients optimize the growth of
every crop
a building like that can you’ll do 29
tons of Swiss chard straight to the city
center washed and cleaned at a discount
at the 10% discount to supermarket rates
that an estimated monthly revenue of 60
to 70 thousand euros rent in that
building would have earned you about
40,000 euros all these answers are many
answers the prevailing poverty in Africa
is hiding the innovation of our
entrepreneurs we’re converting the waste
we’re creating wealth we creating
employment we promote in human dignity
these are the principles of building
sustainable cities to us 80% that
believe trying won’t make a difference I
ask what are we so afraid of that we’ve
become wasted human potential I can hear
the excuses echo across the room but I
don’t have money but I’m not given an
opportunity but I cannot see the value
it’s up to us to create the value our
ancestors were unskilled entrepreneurs
simple traders and farmers that new risk
worked hard and jumped when they saw an
opportunity in watching this talk
you’re already privileged you have
access to the Internet and its resources
that makes you global it makes you
connected it makes you somebody whom the
world can’t afford to label as waste so
I’m asking you join me in seeing waste
for what it’s worth a valuable resource
an opportunity to start a business I’m
not asking you to change the world no
I’m asking you to convert some waste and
make yourself some money you see we must
monetize waste so that we can leapfrog
shorten greed and achieve long-term gain
in the process we may just deal with all
the waste
finally thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
may I assume that your homes are
off-grid that your homes are powered
with solar power and fed with rain
catchment water if not may I at least
assume that you do your part to recycle
that you compost your organics and place
your inorganic waste in the right bin
always I’m embarrassed to admit that I
don’t why is this we know how to recycle
an hour to offset waste we study it in
school we write academic articles on it
we call the field of study the circular
economy but do we really get it the
evidence is overwhelming that we don’t
i’m a young entrepreneur from africa
wide being an entrepreneur means i’m
building a new future and being from
africa means i’m eminently qualified to
speak about waste as South Africans we
produce enough solid waste to rebuild
the Great Pyramid of Giza every four and
a half days in fact if humanity were to
power our wasted food into oil tankers
then we’d fill the entire global fleet
as we waste 1.3 billion tons of food per
year we also waste 450 billion
kiloliters of water which is like
wasting all the water of hurricane javi
every quarter or Hurricane Katrina every
20 days we waste 350 exajoules of energy
in heat noise and leaks I could tell you
that’s enough energy to melt the
Antarctic ice cap in just over ten years
but who cares 350 exajoules is like
releasing 12 and a half thousand
Hiroshima bombs per day
now numerous NGOs celebrities think
tanks and greenies have used similar
shocking statistics to galvanize the
world into action
sadly they failed call me cynical but I
believe humanity is inherently selfish
if I want my three-year-old daughter to
share a toy with her baby brother
then I must bribe her that is human
nature my wife and I we’re still working
on nature but the same thing can be said
for humanity and waste it’s easy to
justify a triple bottom line or the
pursuit of the Millennium Development
Goals when things are going well but
when hardship strikes then we turn a
blind eye to the world’s flight with
scheme we lie and we retreat I’m
thinking of Volkswagen and the
emissions-cheating scandal or the u.s.
withdrawing from the Paris climate
Accord if these are the actions of the
wealthy respectable companies and
countries what do you think the little
guys are doing we created a world where
10% consumes half 10% doesn’t have any
and 80% believe that trying won’t make a
difference
we must monetize waste else will forever
be fighting short-term greed at the
expense of long-term gain let us
consider the circular economy anew the
first word circular stems from natural
systems and Mufasa gave the best
explanation of the circle of life to
Simba in the movie The Lion King mm-hmm
Simba when we die our bodies become the
grass and the Antelope eat the grass and
so we’re all connected in the great
circle of life
the second word economy stems from Greek
and means two things household and
managed
so participating in the circular economy
means our households are managed so that
we convert what we use into something of
equal or greater value our households
extend beyond their homes to include our
businesses our communities and our
environment when we manage something it
is a considered effort we analyze we
prioritize we optimize when we convert
something to increase its value well
then we’re talking about making money
let me tell you of the Zabaleen of Cairo
the Zabaleen had nothing going for them
as for subsistence farmers they moved to
Cairo in the 1940s they were religiously
marginalized and often persecuted things
were so rough that they started to
collect household waste for free just to
feed their pigs what was in it for them
the inherent value of the waste they
managed their waste
they studied recycling methods and
formed micro recycling enterprises they
invested in tools they started making
crafts they are selling fabrics in New
York by the early 2000s the Zabaleen
were managing about a third of Cairo’s
waste without costing the populace a
cent they mastered resource efficiency
and recycled about 80 percent of what
they collected let me put this into
perspective 15 years ago a poor
persecuted community were doing waste
management as effectively as San
Francisco one of the greenest cities in
the world is doing today they are making
money one of the trickiest sways to
handle is micro particles which are
particles that which are particles
that’s defined as being less than 10
microns in diameter most of the time
Johannesburg in South Africa is covered
in a faint dust haze because a full
of dumped mining slimes are smaller than
10 microns our company developed a
process whereby we mix these mining
slimes with a recycled plastic we add to
this a little bit of magic and then we
compression mold green roof tiles our
tiles weigh a quarter of normal concrete
tiles if they are twice as strong and
not brittle we don’t go around selling
the fact that we can recycle mining
slaves by the truckload no people won’t
buy that they also won’t buy the 1.9
kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions
that we can offset per tile what makes
our tiles worth buying is the fact that
they save a developer on breakage roof
trusses construction time and transport
overall a savior builds roof comes in 10
percent cheaper than a roof built with a
bottom range economy tile after we done
with our certification will be taking
mining slimes with no value creating
roof tiles with real value that is
making money but now let’s really
stretch our minds how about empty space
in 2017 the Lagos State Government
disclosed that there are over 60
abandoned government buildings on Lagos
Island how on earth can this be Lagos is
a city with 14 million people they have
an access problem it takes six hours of
daily commuting simply to work from
those nor can those buildings be
converted into homes because the people
in downtown Lagos are too poor to pay
the rent so what to do how about we
start a hydroponic farming agribusiness
hydroponic farming yields are about four
times that of swell equivalent because
the growing season lasts the entire year
and the constant provision of the
correct nutrients optimize the growth of
every crop
a building like that can you’ll do 29
tons of Swiss chard straight to the city
center washed and cleaned at a discount
at the 10% discount to supermarket rates
that an estimated monthly revenue of 60
to 70 thousand euros rent in that
building would have earned you about
40,000 euros all these answers are many
answers the prevailing poverty in Africa
is hiding the innovation of our
entrepreneurs we’re converting the waste
we’re creating wealth we creating
employment we promote in human dignity
these are the principles of building
sustainable cities to us 80% that
believe trying won’t make a difference I
ask what are we so afraid of that we’ve
become wasted human potential I can hear
the excuses echo across the room but I
don’t have money but I’m not given an
opportunity but I cannot see the value
it’s up to us to create the value our
ancestors were unskilled entrepreneurs
simple traders and farmers that new risk
worked hard and jumped when they saw an
opportunity in watching this talk
you’re already privileged you have
access to the Internet and its resources
that makes you global it makes you
connected it makes you somebody whom the
world can’t afford to label as waste so
I’m asking you join me in seeing waste
for what it’s worth a valuable resource
an opportunity to start a business I’m
not asking you to change the world no
I’m asking you to convert some waste and
make yourself some money you see we must
monetize waste so that we can leapfrog
shorten greed and achieve long-term gain
in the process we may just deal with all
the waste
finally thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
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