Coal dust bricks project earns young entrepreneur US$5 000

Hwange (New Ziana) A young entrepreneur from Hwange, Matabeleland North province recently won a US$5 000 award for promoting waste management and recycling through a project of making bricks from coal dust.

Allan Sibanda (27), received a US$5 000 grant from the International Labour Organisation as part of the Simuka-Phakama Enterprise Innovation Challenge.

Sibanda received the first prize for best Waste Management and Recycling Business in the 2019 Green Enterprise Innovation and Development in Zimbabwe.

“I started this project last year where l mixed coal dust with clay. At first it was not easy for people to believe that we could reduce land and air pollution through brick moulding,” he said.

“In our community we mine coal which we use to generate electricity. After that, the coal waste is released back to the community which now puts our health at risk as well as that of our livestock,” he added.

Sibanda was not deterred by the harsh economic conditions in the country and started earning a living using the available resources – coal waste in an area that boasts of a number of mines which produce the by-product, which many would find useless but a threat to health.

After observing the cycle for several years and being unemployed, Sibanda then started his project of using coal waste to make bricks.
“I decided to start my own project of moulding bricks by recycling the coal waste through mixing it with clay to produce bricks,” he said.

Sibanda is now one of the few individuals supplying bricks to those building houses in the coal mining town.

His brick moulding project landed him in second position at the Zimbabwe Youth Connect Innovators program that took place early August last year in Lupane.

New Ziana