Kaltani, a Nigerian clean-tech plastic waste recycling company, has received initial capital of $4 million to extend its operations across the country.
The money will be used to open 20 new collecting and aggregation facilities across Nigeria, bringing the total number of employees to over 500.
This expansion will significantly increase Kaltani’s capacity, allowing the company to recycle up to 15,000 tonnes of plastic trash per year.
Engineer Obi Charles Nnanna founded Kaltani in Nigeria to address Africa’s growing plastic waste challenge by promoting the circular economy and recycling best practices.
Bottles and other plastic garbage are collected by a team of 100 employees split between the startup’s collection sites, recycling factory, and offices.
The debris is then transferred to one of its collection centers for sorting and processing before being delivered to a recycling facility.
Plastics are subsequently processed at the factory into hot-washed PET flakes, PE and PP pellets, and sold to FMCG firms for thermoform, sheet, packaging, bottling, and fiber applications.
To provide transparency and traceability throughout the value chain, Kaltani’s technology employs data analytics, predictive analytics, and geo-mapping.
The company now plans to expand its operations to other African countries with similar plastic waste management issues.
“The world has a plastic pollution crisis. Plastic waste is an environmental disaster causing environmental degradation to our oceans, aquatic life, the air we breathe, and our health,” said Engineer Obi Charles Nnanna, founder of Kaltani.
“With the amount of plastic waste produced set to continue skyrocketing, the world desperately needs actionable and scalable solutions.”
Every year, the African continent generates around 19 million tonnes of plastic garbage, of which 17 million tonnes are improperly managed.
This indicates that only 4% of garbage is recycled. In a business-as-usual scenario, trash generation is predicted to quadruple by 2060.
To address the problem of plastic trash pollution, more holistic approaches are needed, focusing on upstream activities such as the move from a linear “use-throw” to a production paradigm.
Startups like Kaltani and others are giving the continent hope by focusing on recycling and enforcing significant behavioral changes in individuals and businesses.
According to Nnanna, the firm has already demonstrated that its strategy works successfully and efficiently with a comprehensive A-Z value chain solution.