Recycling company Mr. Green Africa receives a Certified B Corporation

AFRICA – Mr. Green Africa, a plastic recycling company that is backed by Dutch family-backed impact investor DOB Equity, has become the first waste management and recycling company in Africa to be a Certified B Corporation.

The B-Corp certification establishes Mr. Green Africa as a pioneer in the recycling sector and has also enabled it to start measuring its social and environmental impact.

It will also gain access to a community of like-minded companies, who are all working towards improving that impact.

As a B-Corp, Mr. Green Africa’s end goal is to create a sustainable economy, while having a positive imprint on its employees, the wider community and overall environment. It is one of only 20 companies in Kenya that have achieved B Corp certification.

“Mr. Green Africa has built a ground-breaking model for recycling which many businesses in Western countries are struggling to develop. We believe what Mr. Green has built in Kenya can be a blueprint for scaling up in other emerging markets,” Saskia van der Mast, Co-CEO of DOB Equity, said.

“Becoming a Certified B Corp is a great accomplishment and a validation of their unique business model.”

“We believe what Mr. Green has built in Kenya can be a blueprint for scaling up in other emerging markets.”

Saskia van der Mast – Co-CEO, DOB Equity

Mr. Green Africa collects waste plastic from local communities and recycles it into a “new” high-quality raw material which can be used by manufacturers in their packaging for products.

Through DOB Equity’s investments, Mr. Green Africa has been able to replace virgin plastic packaging with up to 100% recyclable plastic for multinational companies such as Unilever.

A big part of Mr. Green Africa’s growth plans is the involvement of the local community by encouraging consumers to trade in their plastics to benefit the environment.

Currently Mr. Green Africa is undertaking a pilot with 100+ consumers who can start contributing to the recycling process.

These pilot consumers are rewarded with “Green points” which can be used for discounts and purchasing goods in local grocery stores or on online platforms.

“We believe our business model has the potential to change the future of plastic recycling in the global South. Since our introduction in 2015, we’ve made a significant amount of progress and have proved that our recycled material can now act as a substitute for imported virgin plastics,” Keiran Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Mr. Green Africa, said.

“We strive for a circular economy and convert approximately 75-85% of our plastics into fully recycled plastics. In cases where plastics are not compatible with our recycling process, our mission is to constantly explore alternative methods to bring value to these materials.

“The investments we are receiving from partners such as DOB Equity make a huge difference towards our goal of improving our tech-enabled platform and expanding our model across the whole of Africa.”

The efficient collection process is largely due to leveraging existing technology for a new use case and creating robust logistical networks, this enables plastics to be streamed through the entire value chain in an effective, fair, inclusive and traceable way.

Mr. Green Africa’s technology aims to close the loop between consumers and manufacturers by allowing plastics to be fully traceable and making the informal waste collection sector part of a predictable and functional value chain.