Up-Plastic Kampala. Abstract report by Up Plastic

ABSTRACT REPORT Team: Sara Gottschalk, Enni Huotari, Anna Kintsurashvili, Olga MĂ¤kinen, Bergpob Viriyaroj Mentor: Matias Heino

Sustainable Global Technologies Studio (SGT) | Abstract Report | 18.05.2018

Launching a community workspace for plastic-reuse innovations at Makerere University

Aalto University | Makerere University | Aalto Global Impact | PBL East Africa

UPPLASTIC KAMPALA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A big thank you to everyone who made this project possible and participated in it. Thank you to team Makerere with Bruce Nuwagaba, Agnes Atamba, Jessica Nassinde, Joseph Lubandi, Clare Musiimenta, Jaura Mukiibi as well as Dr. Venny Nakazibwe and her whole PBL East Africa team from The College of Engineering, Design, Arts and Technology (CEDAT) at Makerere University for warmly welcoming us, working so closely together and inviting us to dance and experience Uganda in such a special way, right from the start. A special thanks to Matleena Muhonen, Coordinator and teacher at SGT Programme and PBL East Africa Initiative, and to our mentor Matias Heino, both for greatly supporting and motivating us throughout the journey and joining our field trip. We are truly grateful to the team behind the PBL East Africa initiative for bringing this project into being and to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland for making all of this possible through their generous funding. A special thanks to Vilma Hämäläinen, Project Specialist at Aalto Global Impact, and Riina Subra, Aalto Global Impact Senior Manager, who also joined us during our final UP-PLASTIC event at Makerere University in Kampala. A big thank you to Olli Varis for running the Sustainable Global Technologies studio course and to other SGT studio teams for sharing this experience with us. A very special and warm thank you to the wonderful souls behind Fimboo for welcoming us to your workspace and supporting us with great insights as well as crucial parts for our compression machine. We want to also thank the following people for inspiring and working with us during our field trip in Kampala: Ruganzu Bruno, Mathias Tusiime, Kizoto Maria Kazul, Pamela Matovu, Aaron Acuda, Robert Gita, Andrew Wabwire, Babu Talik, Phillip Kasakye, Etwalu Emmanuel Brian and Frank Morris Matovu. Last but not least, we want to thank Mark Rujumba and Dennis Diatel for sharing beautiful photos with us, which they took during the final event and during our Fimboo visit. Without all your contributions this project wouldn’t have succeeded the way it did. Thank you!

Photo by Dennis Diatel Photography

ABBREVIATIONS CEDAT College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology KCCA Kampala Capital City Authority LCB unit Low Cost Building unit MAK Makerere University PBL Problem Based Learning SGT Sustainable Global Technololgies UCASDR Uganda community Art skill Development and Recycling (UCASDR)

PROJECT SUMMARY

The Up-Plastic Kampala project is part of the three-year Problem Based Learning East Africa initiative, which is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and was brought to life by Aalto Global Impact. PBL East Africa runs for three years from 2017–2020 and brings together multidisciplinary teams from four universities (University of Dar es Salaam, University of Nairobi, Makerere University and Aalto University) to develop sustainable solutions to community challenges. Within this project, our student team from Aalto University collaborated with a student team from The College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. The aim of the collaboration was to solve a local challenge in Kampala while aiming to support larger scale impact. The project activities took place within a 5-month timeframe from January until May 2018. Based on a student competition at Makerere University, the topic for this year‘s project was set by team Makerere‘s winning entry, focussing on addressing underlying environmental and social issues in Uganda, such as youth unemployment and solid waste problems. We concentrated on the latter and in particular plastic waste, as we saw it having the biggest potential in addressing both aforementioned issues. The main aspired outcome was to foster students’ capacities to understand and proactively solve problems, which we aimed to achieve by sharing knowledge and enhancing awareness through workshops, stakeholder collaborations and the development of a plastic recycling workspace at Makerere University. By the end of the two-week field trip, we succeeded in completing our mission of having held a successful life-cycle-assessment workshop, having set up a plastic recycling workspace including a self-built Precious Plastic compression machine, and having established strong connections between important stakeholders. After the field trip, the Makerere student team continued to develop their LCB unit prototypes and team Aalto started the process of initiating their own plastic recycling workspace at Aalto University.

THE UP-PLASTIC KAMPALA PROJECT

PROJECT OBJECTIVES ACTIVITIES “Cradle to Cradle” book introduced to Makerere students Sustainability co-learning workshop held for Makerere and Aalto student teams

Started to build Precious Plastic machines

Space for plastic recycling workspace located

Stakeholders involved to set up plastic recycling workspace

Stakeholders met together with Makerere students (through Makerere University) “Fimboo Community” in Entebbe visited together with Makerere students

OUTPUTS Output 1: Workshop carried out

Output 2: Plastic recycling workspace established

Output 3: Connection between stakeholders established

OUTCOME

Outcome: Students’ capacities fostered IMPACTS

Impact 1: Addressing solid waste problem in Uganda

Impact 2: Contribution to youth employment in Uganda 11

STAKEHOLDER MAP ARTIST COMMUNITIES Artists communities that work with plastic waste

UCASDR Mathias Tusiime

ECOART UGANDA

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY UP-PLASTIC is part of the Makerere student community, and CEDAT is our main partner.

Ruganzu Bruno

FIMBOO

MAK

A PRECIOUS PLASTIC COMMUNITY

SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND FINE ART

An established partner community of UP-PLASTIC

Provider of space for the plastic recycling workspace

UP-PLASTIC KAMPALA PRECIOUS PLASTIC COMMUNITY UP-PLASTIC is part of the global Precious Plastic initiative

UP-PLASTIC is part of the SGT studio course and the PBL East Africa initiative, fostering collaboration around problem-based learning in East Africa.

Direct collaborators in MAK

MAK

SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM Collaborator for raising plastic waste awareness at Makerere University

KCCA

CEDAT

Network & consultation

OTHER STAKEHOLDERS

Roofings Ltd.

Potential stakeholders, Provider with which UP-PLASTIC of steel slag has been in contact with

Engineering Department Collaborator for machine building

STAKEHOLDER LIST UP-PLASTIC

MAKERERE

TEAM

UNIVERSITY

www.up-plastic.tumblr.com www.instagram.com/up_plastic

Aalto Team Coordinator

Team

Matleena Mentor

Anna

Matias

Olga

CEDAT The College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology https://cedat.mak.ac.ug Beam

Enni

Assoc. Prof. John

Sara

Makerere Team Coordinator

Agnes

Engineer

Teacher

Babu

Robinson

Robert

Frank

MAK Sustainability Program

Team

Dr. Venny Mentor

Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Bruce

Head of Program

Student

Ms. Pamela

Aaron

Claire

MAK School of Industrial and Fine Art Dean Dr. Robinah

Jaura

Jessica

Joseph

Machine location

Dr. Kizito

OTHER STAKEHOLDERS

PRECIOUS PLASTIC COUMMUNITY

Artist Communities

www.preciousplastic.com

Ecoart Uganda Ruganzu Bruno www.facebook.com/ecoartuganda

UCASDR Mathias Tusiime www.tusiimemathias.blogspot.com Precious Plastic is a global community of hundreds of people working toward a solution to plastic pollution.

KCCA Kampala Capital City Authority

FIMBOO - A Precious Plastic community based in Entebbe, Uganda. www.ﬁmboo.com

www.kcca.go.ug

is responsible for the operations of the capital City of Kampala in Uganda.

Rooﬁngs Ltd. Leading producer of quality steel products in Uganda. Soren

Benjamin

Liz

Queen

www.rooﬁngsgroup.com

PROJECT TIMELINE Project start

· Understanding the topic · Getting to know the team

Jan

Project Doc feedback

Discovering Precious Plastic · A global plastic recycling community with open-source designs of plastic recycling machines

· Meeting with Veera Pensala · Identifying our actions in Kampala

week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 6

Kampala fieldwork

Feb

SGT MidReview

· Presenting our fieldtrip experience to SGT studio peers · Hearing from other SGT African teams

· Workshops are carried out · Connection is established between stakeholders · Workspace is established · Plastic recycling event organized

week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10

Mar

week 11 week 12

Important updates from MAK team

week 13

· MAK team updates their prototyping results, using Precious Plastic compression machine

week 14 week 15

Apr Meeting with Tapio Koskinen and Matti Jänkälä Final project presentation · Public presentation of our project during Aalto festival

· Discussing the possibility of Aalto Precious Plastic community

week 17 week 18

Final report

· Handing in our final project report for the SGT studio course

May Official project end

· The end of the SGT studio 2018

week 16

week 19 week 20 week 21

FIELD TRIP TIMELINE Expert presentations

First meeting · Project introduction to Makerere teachers · Campus tour

· Introduction to Kampala city · Plastic handling policy by KCCA · Introduction of MAK Sustainability Program · Plastic recycling art by artist Ruganzu

Mon 12th

Fimboo visit

Tue 13th

· Learning about plastic properties and recycling · Discussion about LCB unit potential

Kampala city tour Workshops day · Team building workshop · Life cycle assessment workshop for LCB units

Wed 14th

Thu 15th

First week wrap up Planning for second week action · Plastic awareness day / event · Developing plastic recycling workspace

Fri 16th

Weekend break

Splitting into 3 teams · Awareness Team · Machine Team · Prototyping Team

2nd week work start

Mon 19th

· Location for plastic recycling workspace established · Each team progresses with their work

Tue 20th

Wed 21st

2nd week work ﬁnished · Machine built · Prototyping mold ﬁnished · Friday event ready

2nd week work continues · Each team progresses with their work

Friday event · Awareness event on plastic recycling

Thu 22nd

Fri 23rd

EXPERT MEETINGS Photo by Dennis Diatel Photoraphy

FIMBOO, UGANDA

LEARNING: “Plastic is not just plastic”

VANTAA ENERGY FINLAND

LEARNING: “Burning plastic for energy is not the most sustainable solution but the best at the moment.”

KITEZI LANDFILL UGANDA

LEARNING: “There is valuable waste, but what happens to the waste without value?”

RESULTS Output 1: Workshop carried out

Introduction of “Cradle to Cradle” book

Sustainability workshop for LCB units

Plastic upcycling workshop with Fimboo

With our project being focused on recycling, we decided to challenge the idea of reuse-reduce-recycle and introduce the “Cradle to Cradle” model to Team MakerOutput 2: Plastic recycling established ere. Therefore, our present for eachworkspace member of Team Makerere was the book “Cradle to Cradle”. Before sharing the presents, Olga and Anna gave a short presentation about the book and the concept it explains, concentrating on the idea of it being the pioneer in discussions around circular economy. Team Aalto held a sustainability workshop. Two of the members, Olga and Enni, facilitated the workshop while the rest of the team was working with Team Makerere in two groups. The idea of the workshop was to learn about the concept of life cycle assessment and understand especially the life cycle of the LCB unit created by Team Makerere. At the end of the workshop, both teams presented their 4 key insights of each step of the life cycle of the LCB unit and discussed about the different feelings, which this new way of working together brought up. visited the plastic recycling of Fimboo in Entebbe. They started PreciousWe Plastic Compression Upcycleworkspace plastic workspace Mould for LCB units is built is built provided by MAK school Later they managed to receive as an machine NGO, trying to create a positive impact onArt society. some funding and invested it into creating Precious Plastic machines. The team is working to create a positive impact both in Uganda and Austria. In Uganda, they proWenext made the decision to only build the Compression machine due to the fact, More results on page. duce rulers and bags, going to schools and talking with younger generation about the that both our time and budget was very limited. We had three and a half days to build importance of plastic recycling. For Austria, they are producing ski poles to address the Compression machine. The actual machine building process started with getting the unsustainable nature of the rapid skiing culture. the parts. We were introduced to Mr. Robert Gitta, an Electrical engineer, through Mr. After the brief introduction, Benjamin, the local team leader, showed us the Robinson. Even though Mr. Robert’s involvement was not planned, we understood that workspace and demonstrated the machines (shredder, injection and extrusion) and his suggestions would greatly facilitate our process. Thanks to him, we manage to get gave brief information about the importance of separating plastic for the recycling a couple of crucial parts and proceeded with our machine building; the parts built process. Since our team was planning to build the machines, we believe it was a great were an oven and a carjack. experience to see them and get a local opinion of how to build them, and how easy it After getting the parts, we split into two groups, Anna and Bruce to work with is, for example, to get the parts in Uganda. mechanical parts (welding, table, carjack etc.) and Beam and Agnes with electrical Later in the afternoon, we had a small workshop organized by Fimboo team parts for the oven. members about possible ways of identifying and distinguishing types of plastics. After It has to be mentioned that without the global community of Precious Plastic, getting the information about labeling the products and the meaning of each label, we we would have faced big problems with crucial electronic parts missing. However, were challenged to use ﬂoating properties of plastics to identify the types which were Fimboo offered to give us all electronic parts from their unbuilt Compression not labeled on the products. machine, including the PID controller. Their donation made the machine more reliable To sum up, the visit was very inspirational both for Team Aalto and Team Makand saved some of our budget. erere. It made us think about challenges and possibilities for recycling plastics, as With great help of the Makerere University staff we managed to ﬁnish the well as the importance of the stories we want to tell by giving new life to waste matemachine bythe theproducts. deadline. Since none of us had experience or skills in welding, this rial and/or process was done with the help of Babu Talik. This was also the case with electrical wirings; Mr. Edward, an employee of Mr. Robert, was commissioned to do all the wirings.

Output 3: Connection between stakeholders established

Presentations by KCCA, MAK Sustainability Program and Ecoart Uganda attended

Presentation and collaboration with MAK Sustainability Program

Fimboo visit with Makerere students

Presentation and collaboration with Ecoart Uganda artist Ruganzu Bruno

Collaboration with Fimboo

Makerere University staff organized talks and presentations about plastic recycling and sustainability issues in Kampala and in the University. We got the opportunity toOutput: hear aboutUP-PLASTIC the plans for waste management by KCCA (Kampala Capital Additional event City Authority). In addition to the City Authority’s plans we got to know about the MAK Sustainability Program. We were further introduced to Ecoart Uganda by the founder Ruganzu, and got further insights and also learned more about the city of Kampala. In addition to official presentations, we had the chance to visit Fimboo, the only Precious Plastic workspace in Uganda. As mentioned above, we had a very fruitful visit and also established a partnership with them. Local students are still exchanging knowledge with them. It is very important to note that Fimboo has the knowledge for plastic recycling but lower resources than Makerere University. On our final event, they were introduced to the mechanical engineers from CEDAT and had long discussions about possibilities to use renewable energy to run the machines. Important to note is that not only did both teams receive aCompression lot of practical informachine Poster for the UP-PLASTIC event UP-PLASTIC event organized mation, but that we also established partnerships with Fimboo, Ecoart Uganda and introduced during the printed and put up the MAK Sustainability Program. The first collaboration was duringUP-PLASTIC the UP-PLASTIC event event in Makerere University which will be discussed next.

With the aim to engage the Makerere community into our project and spread awareness of the potential value and market for plastic waste, we decided to organize an event in front of CEDAT. Everything happened very spontaneously, since we only had four days to prepare, while also aiming to build a machine and create a framework for prototyping during the same week. Next to showcasing and testing the “brand new” and self-built compression machine (which would ﬁnd its new home at Makerere

NEXT STEPS Meeting with Tapio Koskinen and Matti Jänkälä · Discussing the possibility of Aalto Precious Plastic community

Final project presentation · Public presentation of our project during Aalto festival

May Shredder Machine

Start building machine in Aalto University · Shredder machine is the ﬁrst machine that we will build in Finland, using PBL budget

Jun Aug

Injection Machine

Extrusion Machine

Building of other two machines · Start building the other two machines with additional funding

Apply for funding and bring more people on board

Sep ??? Launch Precious Plastic Aalto · Start of Precious Plastic Aalto workspace at orientation week of 2018 academic year

Make sure Precious Plastic Aalto workspace continues to be in use

FINAL REMARKS

While the official part of the Up-Plastic Kampala project and the Sustainable Global Technologies Studio course at Aalto University are ending, we can look back at a very exciting and educational time and are able to gratefully celebrate what we were able to accomplish. Despite smaller and bigger challenges, we completed all our objectives and partly even exceeded them. We know that this was only possible by believing in our project, working together with empathy and patience and yet constantly pushing forward, while having been extremely lucky to have collaborated and meet incredible people. The communities, such as at Makerere University and CEDAT, the Precious Plastic network but also Aalto University have made all the difference. Being able to work so closely with another student team in Kampala, and being exposed to the beautiful and colorful culture of Uganda has opened our minds and we hope to continue Up-Plastic in one way or another. It is wonderful to see that team Makerere is now experimenting with their LCB unit prototypes and is making progress each week. Them using the Compression Machine for that makes us incredibly proud as we can conclude that the field trip was a success for everyone and that the project outcomes are not destined to end there, but that more can be build upon them in the future. We hope that they will be able to build the shredder machine to make recycling plastic waste even easier within the Makerere University community. Learning and understanding that issues like plastic waste are a global challenge that everyone has to face and tackle, and hence initiating the Precious Plastic Aalto workspace, will hopefully inspire more students, in and around Aalto, to think about global challenges more and rethink their own behavior and attitude toward nature and how we can live in more alignment with it, instead of continuing to exploit it. We are very thankful for having been part of the SGT studio course including the PBL East Africa initiative in 2018 and are looking forward to further endeavors.

www.up-plastic.tumblr.com Instagram: up_plastic

MATERIAL

COMPRESSION MACHINE MANUAL FOR PRECIOUS PLASTIC MAKERERE WORKSPACE

Precious Plastic

Compression Machine by up-plastic https://up-plastic.tumblr.com https://www.instagram.com/up_plastic

Control Box

Oven

Pressing Stand

Manual 1) Decide on the product • Deciding on the product is the ﬁrst step of the process. • The Precious Plastic website provides sample products that are compatible with this machine: https://preciousplastic.com/en/creations.html

2) Make the mould Mould cover

• The mould can be made of various material; e.g. steel, cement or clay. • The mould cover is used for compressing the product, making it solid and strong. • The volumes of the cover, pre-melted plastic and the product have to be calculated, in order for the pressing stand to eﬀectively compress the product.

Volume before melted Volume after pressed

3) Determine plastic type • Plastic is not just plastic, there are several types with very diﬀerent attributes. • The melting temperature is diﬀerent in each plastic type. • There are several methods to check the plastic type from the plastic waste. • The Precious Plastic website provides methods to identify plastic types and their attributes: https://preciousplastic.com/en/videos/plastics.html

PET

HDPE

PVC

LDPE

MIX

4) Prepare for melting • The specific plastic, which you want to use, has to be prepared and cut into flakes before melting. • The Shredder machine by Precious Plastic is an effective tool to prepare the plastic. If the Shredder machine is not available, simply hand-cut the plastic into small pieces. • After shredding, put the plastic into the mould and put the whole mould inside the oven.

5) Set the temperature • Before melting, the temperature of the plastic type you have chosen has to be determined. • The temperature of the oven can be set on the control panel in the control box. • Start setting the temperature with the SetTemperature button, press Set again to start. • The oven will heat up automatically after the temperature has been set.

Current Temperature

Set Temperature

Set Temp. + Temp. Change Digit - Temp.

6) Wait (and be patient) • After the oven has been started, it can take 20 minute or more, for the plastic to be fully melted, depending on the product, mould shape and plastic type. • It is safe to check inside the oven, if the plastic has melted yet, or not.

7) Take the mould out • To take the mould out, proper protection is required as the mould can get as hot as the temperature inside the oven, especially for steel moulds. • Put the mould on the pressing stand immediately to compress the product. If the plastic gets cold before compression, the quality of the product will be lower.

8) Press the product • Try to align the carjack and centralize the mould to the pressing stand. • Spin the carjack to compress the product, stop only when it is not possible to spin anymore.

9) Cool down the mould • Wait for the mould to cool down. • Splashing cold water onto the mould can quicken the cooling down process.

10) Take the product out • After the mould has completely cooled down, the product can be taken out of the mould. Great job!

UP-PLASTIC EVENT MATERIAL

Up-plastic Kampala

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING in East Africa brings together multidisciplinary student teams from four universities to develop sustainable solutions to community challenges in 2017–2020. The Up-plastic Kampala project (Upcycling plastic waste in Kampala) is a joint project of two student teams from Makerere University and Aalto University, who collaborate to work aaltoglobalimpact.org/pbl-east-africa on a real challenge from which the students can learn from and through another, while also aiming to support larger scale impact.

The project aim is to contribute to underlining environmental and social issues in Uganda, part of which are solid waste problems and youth unemployment. The goals of the project is to support the Makerere community to upcycle plastic waste, create awareness in waste management by launching a workspace as a community hub for plastic-reuse innovations, as well as to prototype low cost building units from recycled plastic and steel wastes.

up_plastic

Started by Dutchman Dave Hakkens.

More than 140 workspaces.

Precious Plastic community all over the world!

Since 2013.

A global community of hundreds of people working towards a solution to plastic pollution. Knowledge, tools and techniques are shared online, for free.

Fimboo Workspace in Entebbe.

preciousplastic.com

What to make out of recycled plastic?

Bowls

Bottle caps, Tiles

Flower pots

LCB

UNITS Low Cost Sustainable Building Units

LCB Units are modern structural building components produced from plastics, steel slag and sand.

RAW MATERIALS

For these LCB Units, we concentrated on one specific type of plastic known as PET, under which almost all water and soft drink bottles fall. The plastics are melted in a pan, then they are mixed with the sand and steel chippings. This is poured into the mould. Below is an image of the finished LCB Unit.

Sand

Steel chippings

Plastic

Mould

With time, we are planning on producing a number of other building units for example tiles, pavers, blocks, etc.

However, this project is continuous because there are a lot of pending tests still to be carried out. Plus, a lot of research is being carried out on plastic recycling for the production of a more effective prototype.

THANK YOU

Up-Plastic Kampala Stories and more at www.up-plastic.tumblr.com Follow us on Instagram #up_plastic 2018