About Plastic Pioneers

Plastic Pioneers' is a green initiative based in South Africa and hopefully soon, the world. We are dedicated to tackling plastic pollution, cleaning up our environment and making a positive change in our areas and surrounding communities.

We do this by incentivising people to collect plastic waste by offering a premium price for the collected plastic, which is then upcycled into valuable products such as carabiners, roof tiles, boards, and more. This approach helps clean the environment and provides economic opportunities for disadvantaged individuals.

WHO ARE PLASTIC PIONEERS

Crafting members of society wanting to make a positive change to the people and the planet.

Plastic Pioneers' vision is to create a cleaner, healthier planet by transforming plastic waste into valuable products, empowering communities, and fostering a circular economy. We envision a world where environmental sustainability and social development go hand in hand, ensuring that every piece of plastic waste collected contributes to economic opportunities and a greener future for all.

Through innovative recycling practices, education, and collaboration, we aim to lead the charge in reducing plastic pollution and building resilient, eco-friendly communities.

WHAT'S COMING

These are all our active projects, your contribution will enable us to build this and much more.

🔜 Our first upgraded range of products: From carabiners to roof tiles we aim to make it all. Our goal is to eventually be able to employ a large number of people 10 to 1000+ that are in these lower socio-economic backgrounds to create a catalyst of exponential change.

🔜 Collaborating with other big companies such as Sealand Gear to help them recycle their offcuts and materials to help serve the communities and create long-lasting sustainable change.

🔜 Create a portable, zero carbon emissions, mini-size recycling workshop bicycle in collaboration with Solar Punk Nomads to be able to give workshops in many areas and to expand our impact areas.

🔜 To aid the youth in becoming real changemakers by helping them create their own recycling centres in disadvantaged communities.

🔜 Build our machinery to be able to accommodate bigger projects that will require higher amounts of plastic.

A sneak peek into this exciting project:

🔜 Develop a way to incorporate carbon credits into our products so that it will incentivize big corporations to add to the recycling ecosystem and become more engaged with socio-economic and environmental issues, bridging the gap between big corporations and the people on the ground.

Big things for the future of plastic recycling

💡A carbon credits back-end accounting software to help keep track of all carbon savings. The company name is Greenly. There is very little on measuring plastic recycling and we aim to pioneer it with Plastic Pioneers to start getting reliable information on plastic and the ways we can mitigate pollution.

Our Impact Thus Far

Updates on all that was done since the start of the year 2024. ✔️Built our very first injection press machine, which we have used to create our products.

✔️Set up a collaboration with 5 young adults to provide them with an opportunity to make money and clean up their environments.

✔️Collect and save over 300 kgs of HDPE Plastic.

✔️Create our first set of moulds to upcycle the plastic into. These moulds include Carabiners, tiles, coasters, garden pegs, and hexagon-shaped linking plates.

Measurable Impact

We have removed 300 kilograms of plastic from the environment which has prevented the release of 210 kilograms of CO2 by reducing the landfill gases produced by non-recycled plastics.

Our efforts are also measurable by the amount of work we do around the circular economy. Creating impact through taking waste from big companies that would end up in landfills and selling them back upcycled products from this. This aids in lowering the carbon footprint of these complex supply chains.

Another aspect of our circular economy involves incentivizing individuals to pick up trash in their local communities. In return, they receive free upcycled products, which they can sell to others to make a living. Through this initiative, we are creating a network of green economies.

Our workshops and educational programs are designed to help upskill local communities, create future employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to exponentially rid plastic of our environment and into our upcycling workspace, where we turn it into premium upcycled products.

Our scalability and educational workshops are designed to create an exponential reduction of GHGs by limiting the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills. With this focus on education, we will start cultivating a community that moves away from plastic and on to other alternatives such as our recycled pallets that are coming soon.

Fact: According to one study, a standard plastic bag weighing an average of 32.5g emits 200 grams of carbon, which is just a bit lower than the amount of carbon emitted from driving 1 km in a gasoline-powered vehicle. Therefore by cutting down the use of standard plastic bags, we hope to change the current corporation's ethos around the use of plastic bags to other alternatives. Eg. Your local supermarket shifts from plastic bags to our alternatives.

We are looking into carbon crediting for plastic to create real data around the impact of plastic recycling and the good it does for our planet and people. We aim to use real data to aid the fight against plastic pollution.

Our scalability

With our projects being revolved around communities we have the power of exponential growth to leverage us into succession.

We aim to double our machinery inventory by the end of December of 2024. We aim to go from 5 individual young adult cleaners to 10 by the end of December 2024. We aim to implement the new green accounting software by June 2025. We will be creating a new set of machinery that will be designed for sheet pressing and allow us to make construction materials out of upcycled plastic. By 2026 we want to have 1-3 new recycling centres in surrounding communities that have been set up by our community members that will be currently helping with the plastic collection. By the end of 2026 we want to be able to take out 4 tons of plastic per year and exponentially grow from there. We want to help develop a platform that adheres to plastic offsetting regulations and can help make other recycling projects more sustainable and measurable.

Our measurability is about focusing on the numbers. We believe by adhering to the principles of free public domain we can encourage people to grow their own projects and come to us for help. Our ethos around collaboration and sustainable development is a big part of what we do. Education, support, opportunities and community-driven action are what make what we do worth it.

Building a Greener Future with Recycled Plastics

🌍 Transforms plastic waste into valuable products, promoting the circular economy and reducing environmental pollution. 🌍 Empowers underprivileged communities by providing economic opportunities through premium payments for collected plastic waste. 🌍 Enhances social development with workshops, educating communities on recycling practices and plastic properties. 🌍 Collaborates with local organizations to sponsor food and necessities for participants, fostering community support and engagement. 🌍 Reduces the carbon footprint by recycling plastic, with a 70% reduction in carbon emissions compared to new plastic production. 🌍 Creates premium-looking products from recycled plastic, challenging the perception of recycled materials and promoting sustainability. 🌍 Establishes a network of drop-off points and collection systems, ensuring efficient plastic waste management in local environments, such as mountains, forests, and oceans. 🌍 Advocates for sustainable living and environmental stewardship, inspiring individuals and corporations to support eco-friendly initiatives and contribute to a greener future.

TEAM

Niall Elassi (Founder): Full-time, involved in client liaison, project acquisition, and expansion operations.

Nicky Killeen (Co-founder and Technical Production Manager): Full-time, ensures product quality, and project completion, and contributes to decision-making.

As we grow, we plan to expand our team to include additional project managers, technical experts, and community liaisons to support our scaling operations and enhance our impact.