Take on one side a solid friendship of 20 years between two university buddies, the Togolese David Chateau-Gaïtou and the French Walter Gauvrit.
On the other side, a very important challenge to deal with. Lomé, one million inhabitants, is today asphyxiated by mountains of plastic bags. The consequences? Visual pollution of course, but also impermeable soil which favorizes floods, mosquito proliferation and grave health consequences for animals.
Add an aha! moment: the two friends hear about the Cervald process invented by Gilles Doublié, a technique utilized in several African countries since 1998. Concretely, the plastic bags are melted, mixed with sand and finally pressed into bricks.
And thereby obtain street paving! Which also means: jobs created for collecting and recycling the bags, a clean-up for the town and an ecological renovation for the streets! The Lomé paving is, moreover, according to two-year lab studies on “rolled on” paving, six times more resistant than the conventional concrete paving.
A wonderful opportunity for the capital of Togo to become again “Lomé the beautiful”. And this is one of the innumerable initiatives of these alchemists who transform our garbage into gold.
Dear Future Shaper, why don’t you cast an eye about you to see if you have something there to turn into gold?
More information:
See David & Walter in person presenting the project they manage together with The French Agency for Development, the mayor of Lomé and the associative network
Their website : Les pavés de Lomé
And don’t miss our next Sparkling Rendezvous with its new creative challenge!